Brazil

• Area in square km: 8,547,379
• Population (2000): 165,851,000
• Capital: Brasilia
• Currency: Real
• Only Russia, Canada, China and the US are larger in area than Brazil. Its economy is larger than the rest of South America combined; its population nearly is. It is the world's largest producer of coffee, and has well-developed industrial and service sectors. Unfortunately it also has a crippling external debt and is the world's most unequal state: the richest 20% of Brazilians have a combined income that is 33 times as large as that of the poorest 20%.
• Strange fact: Though Brazil was once a colony of Portugal it now has a population 16 times as large as that of the "mother" country, and much of the Portuguese-language books, TV shows and films consumed in Portugal are in fact of Brazilian origin.

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