REGIONAL IMBALANCES IN MINAS GERAIS: AN APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article main goal is to analyze the development process of Minas Gerais between the years of 1970 and 2000, focusing on its regional disparities and socioeconomic characteristics. A regionalization of the State was carried through aiming at the identification of cities with similar development process. The specific contribution of this work, using techniques of multivariate analysis, was to review the question of the development in a multidimensional perspective and from defining a regionalization that contemplates simultaneously economic, social and demographic indicators. The obtained regionalization represents a mapping of the territorial cohesion as well as of its spalling, which can effectively be useful for economic planning in problem-areas of the state economy.