Spain
Spain officially the Kingdom of Spain is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 505,992 square kilometres (195,365 sq mi), it is the fourth largest country in Europe.
Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the twelfth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, and very high living standards, including the tenth-highest quality of life index rating in the world, as of 2005. It is a member of the United Nations, NATO, OECD, and WTO.
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of Spain
After the return of democracy following the death of Franco in 1975, Spain's foreign policy priorities were to break out of the diplomatic isolation of the Franco years and expand diplomatic relations, enter the European Community, and define security relations with the West.
As a member of NATO since 1982, Spain has established itself as a participant in multilateral international security activities. Spain's EU membership represents an important part of its foreign policy. Even on many international issues beyond western Europe, Spain prefers to coordinate its efforts with its EU partners through the European political cooperation mechanisms.
Spain has maintained its special identification with Latin America. Its policy emphasizes the concept of an Iberoamerican community, essentially the renewal of the historically liberal concept of hispanoamericanismo, or Hispanism as it is often referred to in English, which has sought to link the Iberian peninsula with Latin America through language, commerce, history and culture.
Economy:
Spain's capitalist mixed economy is the twelfth largest worldwide and the fifth largest in the European Union, as well as the Eurozone's fourth largest.
The centre-right government of former prime minister José María Aznar worked successfully to gain admission to the group of countries launching the euro in 1999. Unemployment stood at 7.6% in October 2006, a rate that compared favorably to many other European countries, and especially with the early 1990s when it stood at over 20%. Perennial weak points of Spain's economy include high inflation,[78] a large underground economy,[79] and an education system which OECD reports place among the poorest for developed countries, together with the United States and UK.[80]
However, the Spanish property bubble that begun building from 1997, fed by historically low interest rates and an immense surge in immigration, imploded in 2008, leading to a rapidly weakening economy and soaring unemployment. By the end of May 2009, unemployment reached 18.7% (37% for youths).[81][82]
Before the current crisis, the Spanish economy was credited for having avoided the virtual zero growth rate of some of its largest partners in the EU.[83] In fact, the country's economy created more than half of all the new jobs in the European Union over the five years ending 2005, a process that is rapidly being reversed.[84] The Spanish economy has been until recently regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU, attracting significant amounts of foreign investment.[85]
The most recent economic growth benefited greatly from the global real estate boom, with construction representing an astonishing 16% of GDP and 12% of employment in its final year.[86]
According to calculations by the German newspaper Die Welt in 2007, Spain was on course to overtake Germany in per capita income by 2011.[87] But the collapse of the housing boom in 2008 brought this to an end. According to the IMF, the PPP GDP per capita of Spain had, by 2010, slipped to USD 29,830; this compared to Germany at 36,081, UK 35,059, France 33,910, Italy 29,480, Greece 28,496, and Portugal 23,262.[88]
Research about quality of life by the Economist Intelligence Unit's quality of life survey placed Spain as the country among the top 10 best quality of life in the world for 2005, ahead of other economically and technologically advanced countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom and South Korea.[89]
Before the collapse of the real estate boom there had been a corresponding rise in the levels of personal debt as prospective home owners struggled to meet asking prices. The average level of household debt tripled in less than a decade. This placed great pressure upon lower to middle income groups; by 2005 the median ratio of indebtedness to income had grown to 125%, due primarily to expensive boom time mortgages.[90]
The 2008/2009 credit crunch and world recession manifested itself in Spain through a massive downturn in the property sector. Fortunately, Spain's banks and financial services avoided the more severe problems of their counterparts in the USA and UK, due mainly to a stringently enforced conservative financial regulatory regime. The Spanish financial authorities had not forgotten the country's own banking crisis of 1979 and an earlier real-estate-precipitated banking crisis of 1993. Indeed, Spain's largest bank, Banco Santander, participated in the UK government's bail-out of part of the UK banking sector.[91]
According to Spain’s Finance Minister, “Spain faces its deepest recession in half a century”.[93] Spain's government forecast the unemployment rate would rise to 16% in 2009. The ESADE business school predicted 20%.[94] In 2012, it had already risen to an astonishing 23.3%.[95]
Demographics

Geographical distribution of the Spanish population in 2008
In 2008 the population of Spain officially reached 46 million people, as recorded by the Padrón municipal.[113] Spain's population density, at 91/km² (235/sq mi), is lower than that of most Western European countries and its distribution across the country is very unequal. With the exception of the region surrounding the capital, Madrid, the most populated areas lie around the coast.
Native Spaniards make up 88% of the total population of Spain. After the birth rate plunged in the 1980s and Spain's population growth rate dropped, the population again trended upward, based initially on the return of many Spaniards who had emigrated to other European countries during the 1970s, and more recently, fuelled by large numbers of immigrants who make up 12% of the population. The immigrants originate mainly in Latin America (39%), North Africa (16%), Eastern Europe (15%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (4%).[115] In 2005, Spain instituted a three-month amnesty program through which certain hitherto undocumented aliens were granted legal residency.
Brazil
the Federative Republic of Brazilis the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people.[11][12] It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.[11]
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi).[11] It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.[11] It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
The Brazilian economy is the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity (as of 2011).[16][17] Brazil is one of the world's fastest growing major economies. Economic reforms have given the country new international recognition.[18] Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, CPLP, Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Organization of American States, Mercosul and the Union of South American Nations, and is one of the BRIC countries. Brazil is also one of the 17 Megadiverse countries, home to diverse wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.[11] With a confirmed presence of 67 isolated tribes by the Fundação Nacional do Índio, Brazil has the world's greatest number of uncontacted peoples.[19]
Brazil is the largest national economy in Latin America, the world's sixth largest economy at market exchange rates and the seventh largest in purchasing power parity (PPP), according to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Brazil has a mixed economy with abundant natural resources. The Brazilian economy has been predicted to become one of the five largest in the world in the decades to come, the GDP per capita following and growing.[176] Its current GDP (PPP) per capita is $10,200, putting Brazil in the 64th position according to World Bank data. It has large and developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing and service sectors, as well as a large labor pool.[177]
Brazilian exports are booming, creating a new generation of tycoons.[178] Major export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned beef.[179] The country has been expanding its presence in international financial and commodities markets, and is one of a group of four emerging economies called the BRIC countries.[180]
Brazil pegged its currency, the real, to the U.S. dollar in 1994. However, after the East Asian financial crisis, the Russian default in 1998[181] and the series of adverse financial events that followed it, the Central Bank of Brazil temporarily changed its monetary policy to a managed-float scheme while undergoing a currency crisis, until definitively changing the exchange regime to free-float in January 1999.[182]

Combine in a cotton Brazilian plantation. Brazil is the third largest exporter of agricultural products in the world.[183]
Brazil received an International Monetary Fund rescue package in mid-2002 of $30.4 billion,[184] then a record sum. Brazil's central bank paid back the IMF loan in 2005, although it was not due to be repaid until 2006.[185] One of the issues the Central Bank of Brazil recently dealt with was an excess of speculative short-term capital inflows to the country, which may have contributed to a fall in the value of the U.S. dollar against the real during that period.[186] Nonetheless, foreign direct investment (FDI), related to long-term, less speculative investment in production, is estimated to be $193.8 billion for 2007.[187] Inflation monitoring and control currently plays a major part in the Central bank's role of setting out short-term interest rates as a monetary policy measure.[188]
Between 1993 and 2010, 7012 mergers & acquisitions with a total known value of $707 billion with the involvement of Brazlian firms have been announced.[189] The year 2010 was a new record in terms of value with 115 billion USD of transactions. The largest transaction with involvement of Brazilian companies has been: Cia Vale do Rio Doce acquired Inco in a tender offer valued at $18.9 billion USD.
The purchasing power in Brazil is eroded by the so-called Brazil cost.[190]
The population of Brazil, as recorded by the 2008 PNAD, was approximately 190 million[216] (22.31 inhabitants per square kilometer), with a ratio of men to women of 0.95:1[217] and 83.75% of the population defined as urban.[218] The population is heavily concentrated in the Southeastern (79.8 million inhabitants) and Northeastern (53.5 million inhabitants) regions, while the two most extensive regions, the Center-West and the North, which together make up 64.12% of the Brazilian territory, have a total of only 29.1 million inhabitants.
In the 1940s the annual population growth rate was 2.4%, rising to 3.0% in the 1950s and remaining at 2.9% in the 1960s, as life expectancy rose from 44 to 54 years[221] and to 72.6 years in 2007.[222] It has been steadily falling since the 1960s, from 3.04% per year between 1950–1960 to 1.05% in 2008 and is expected to fall to a negative value of –0.29% by 2050 [223] thus completing the demographic transition.[224]
In 2008, the illiteracy rate was 11.48%[225] and among the youth (ages 15–19) 1.74%. It was highest (20.30%) in the Northeast, which had a large proportion of rural poor.[226] Illiteracy was high (24.18%) among the rural population and lower (9.05%) among the urban population.

Country description
China can be considered as an interesting market for FDI as this country is a fast-growing economy with one of the world’s largest populations. This country has high potential to expand.
In this section, some general information about the country will be given. The topics under discussion are China’s economic situation,

Economic situation
After World War II, China was highly controlled by the communists, who imposed strict rules over everyday life of people. After 1978, China’s new leaders focused on market-oriented economic growth and by 2,000 output had quadrupled. For a huge amount of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and room for personal choice has expanded.
China is the world’s fourth largest country by area (after Russia, Canada and the US), but the world’s most populated one (1,338,612,968).
In the past, China’s economy was characterized by a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade. Nowadays, China’s economy is market-oriented with a rapidly growing private sector. It became a major player in the global economy.
In 2009, the GDP (purchasing power parity) was $8.748 trillion; in comparison to the world, China ranks the third place after the European Union and the United Sates. The GDP real growth rate showed 9.1%. Although China is ranked quite high when it comes to the overall GDP, but is ranked quite low compared to the GDP per capita, which is $6,600 (country comparison to the world: 128). Nevertheless, the GDP per capita is increasing due to the economic development and it can also be used as an indicator for the beer consumption in China. The higher the growth of the GDP per capita, the higher is the beer consumption in liters per capita. Furthermore, China has the world’s largest labor force of 813.5 million people. If we compare this number to the labor force of the European Union (225 million) it becomes clear that there is a huge potential customer base. More important figures that clarify China’s future potential for investments are the investments (gross fixed), which are 45.2% of the GDP. This is the amount total businesses spent on fixed assets, such as factories, machinery equipment etc., that provides the basis for future production. Moreover, China is the fifth biggest oil producer in the world. They have the world’s best current account balance after Japan and Germany, which indicates the country’s net trade in goods and services, plus net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends. They are the second biggest exporter in the world after the European Union. Those are all indicators that promise a golden future to China and the Chinese people.