Brazil, the largest Latin American economy and one of the so-called Bric nations together with Russia, India and China, has seen its economy soar in recent years, with growth far outpacing the US and western Europe, but sending inflation higher.
The currency, the real, fell 11% against the US dollar last year.
That is after two years of huge gains - up 5% in 2010 and 34% in 2009. The currency is worth more than double what it was 10 years ago.
With substantial oil and gas reserves continuing to be discovered off Brazil's coast in recent years, the country is now the world's ninth largest oil producer, and the government wishes to ultimately enter the top five.
Brazil has about 190 million people, in contrast to the UK's 60 million people.
And the country has struggled with inequality. The country's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, peaked at 0.61 in 1990 - but 2010's figure was a historic low of 0.53.
Absolute and relative poverty have declined in recent years, especially in the past decade, during which the poorest 50% saw their incomes go up by 68%, according to the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
The country will host the 2014 World Cup, and Rio de Janeiro will be home to the 2016 summer Olympics.
As an overview, the rule of thumb in order to avoid a nation's economy falling into the boundary of crisis is to continue producing goods and services (i.e physical output). Easy route should be re-assessed before embarking on it. A country should not merely rely on the financial instruments, and gain from "paper works" while paying less attention to the importance of physical production.
