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Brazil’s long wait at the gates of the high-income club
Brazil is still running the long, winding track to high-income status. Illustration: Jens Ottoson/Shutterstock
For the 19th year in a row, Brazil will remain in the World Bank’s “upper-middle-income” bracket. This status has become both a statistical label and a symbol of the country’s chronic economic stagnation.
The World Bank’s latest classification, released in July for the 2026 fiscal year, pegs Brazil’s gross national income per capita at USD 9,950 — far below the USD 13,845 threshold for high-income status. Costa Rica, once a poorer counterpart in Latin America, crossed that line this year with per capita income of…
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