By Cândida Caffé and Mariana Vicentini

The participation of Micro and Small enterprises (SMEs) in the Brazilian economy is significant and growing: in 1985 SMEs represented 21% of Brazil’s GDP, having increased to 23.2 percent in the year of 2001 and to 27 percent in the year of 2011.1 In February 2017, SMEs were responsible for 54 thousand new hires, against approximately 26 thousand discharges by medium-sized and large companies.2