This study evaluated the important role the forestry sector plays in the Brazilian economic development by means of the multisector general economic equilibrium models, through the analyses of the Input-Output Matrix (IOM) and the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). The main sources were the Input-Output Tables (IOT) from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES), from the Brazilian Central Bank (BACEN) and the Brazilian Federal Revenue Office (SRF), for 1995. It was observed that the extra power a productive sector has over another to multiply GDP, jobs, taxes, salaries and trade balance, is as important as contributing for the generation of these indicators, when one extra monetary unit is spent by the final consumers demanding for products of this particular sector. The results showed that forestry is one of the Brazilian economic sectors presenting the greatest multiplying effects for the social-economic indicators. It surpassed other sectors such as the automobilistic electric and electronic, machinery and equipment and chemicals and petroleum industries.
Forestry economy; economic equilibrium; forestry planning
