Exchange rate as economic development device

ABSTRACT This article discusses the importance of the exchange rate in the economic development process. After a brief discussion about this issue, the paper presents a historical vision of the exchange policy adopted in Brazil from 1995 until now. This policy took part in the stabilization macroeconomic program implemented in the country since then. Thus, we are discussing the main effects of the economic exchange policy over the industrial sector, highlighting the fact that there are some empirical evidences about the deindustrialization process in Brazil nowadays. What could explain it is the behavior of the share of technological content of the products that compose the international trade of the country. Recently one can observe that there is an expressive growth in the share of the non-industrial products, which could characterize the deindustrialization process in the country.摘要 本文探讨了汇率在经济发展进程中的重要作用。在简要论述该议题后，本文梳理了1995年至今巴西所实施的汇率政策的历史演进脉络。该政策自此成为巴西推行的宏观经济稳定计划的组成部分。据此，本文进一步探讨了汇率政策对工业部门的主要影响，并着重指出，当前巴西存在若干可佐证去工业化（deindustrialization）进程的经验证据。该国国际贸易商品的技术含量占比的变化态势，可对这一现象作出解释。近期可以观察到，该国非工业产品的占比出现显著增长，这或可成为巴西去工业化进程的典型特征。