At the mercy of commodity booms

Dani Rodrik's new Project Syndicate post "The Future of Economic Growth" is well-worth reading (as usual.) My favorite passage:

"But igniting and sustaining rapid growth requires something more: production-oriented policies that stimulate ongoing structural change and foster employment in new economic activities. Growth that relies on capital inflows or commodity booms tends to be short-lived. Sustained growth requires devising incentives to encourage private-sector investment in new industries – and doing so with minimal corruption and adequate competence."

I'm not entirely sure but I might go so far as to say that Brazil, for example (and definitely e.g. South Africa), is facing a challenge here. I am not sure how much economic transformation and diversification is going on in Brazil. However, seeing that Petrobras has been and continues to be the single largest company in the MSCI Brazil Index and the energy and materials sectors account for about 50% of the index, it seems that the country is still heavily reliant on commodities and the commodity boom to continue. Compare that with e.g. the MSCI Mexico, which has nothing in energy and 20% in materials and around 60% in consumer staples--a domestic-demand dependent sector--and telecom. Brazil might still be at the mercy of commodity booms and while its growth is strong and healthy it might also be less stable than one may think. What do you think?