One year before Lula took office, the regions of he South and the Southeast were by themselves responsible for 73.6% of Brazil’s GDP, in other words almost ¾ of the wealth and goods in services produced and consumed in the country.   The last time that the IBGE made the calculation, the rate of concentration was still high, it’s true, but the numbers confirmed a trend towards the reduction of the enormous economic gap between the two regions of the country:  all told, the North, Northeast and the Center-West were responsible for almost 30% of Brazil’s GDP in 2011.

The share of the North region in HGDP increased from 4.7% in 2002 to 5.4% in 2011.  The Center-West increased from 8.8% to (.6%.  The Northeast was up from 13% to 13.4%.  And in this same period the share of the South and the Southwest declined from 56.7% to 55.4% and 16.9% to 16.2%, respectively.

The increase in formal employment, micro and small enterprises generated by easy access to credit and cash transfer programs were crucial for helping Brazil to become a more egalitarian country during the Lula and Dilma governments. If GDP is the sum of all the wealth generated by the country or particular region, household (family) income gives a closer idea of how the life of the Brazilian citizen really improved.

Northeastern and Center-West inhabitants were those who realized the biggest increase in their incomes. From 2001 to 2011, the improvement was 2.9% per year, which means 65% more than the national average. Considering only the income generated by wage or small business profits, those who gained most were, again, those who needed it in the Northeast, North and Center-West.

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