The head of Brazilian football, Marco Polo del Nero, has finally bowed to the pressure and agreed to resign from FIFA's Executive Committee after being a no-show for the last six months amid fears he could be caught up in the burgeoning corruption scandal.
Australian mining giant BHP says mud spilled by the devastating collapse of a dam at a Brazilian mine is not toxic. On Thursday the UN said the dam burst at the Samarco mine unleashed a flood equivalent to 20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud.
Brazilian banks which follow closely events in Argentina and prospects of the new government under president Mauricio Macri, believe the official exchange rate of 9.67 Pesos to the dollar will inevitably have to be devalued, to 12 Pesos by the end of the year, which means a 24% depreciation.
Brazil's central bank kept interest rates on hold for the third straight meeting on Wednesday in a split vote that shows policymakers are uneasy about inflation, a worsening recession which might lead to a raise in rates early in 2016.
Brazil is in shock following the arrest by police on Wednesday of a senior ruling-party senator and a billionaire investment banker in the intensifying probe of a huge corruption network centered on state oil giant Petrobras.
Analysts expect Brazil's economy to contract by 3.15% this year and 2.01% in 2016, the Central Bank reported. The gross domestic product (GDP) estimate comes from the Boletin Focus, a weekly Central Bank survey of analysts from about 100 private financial institutions on the state of the national economy.
Brazilian authorities working on the country’s huge Petrobras corruption probe arrested Jose Carlos Bumlai, a rancher reportedly close to powerful former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Job losses in Brazil accelerated in October to the fastest pace so far this year as the country's political and economic crisis continues to worsen. Brazil's economy lost a net 169,131 payroll jobs in October, the Labor Ministry reported, up from 95,602 layoffs in September.
Earlier on Friday a key Petrobras workers union voted to end a 20-day strike that disrupted output. Workers at the Sindipetro Norte Fluminense local, who had ignored the largest oil workers' union FUP's call to end the strike that started on November first, will return to work Friday evening at onshore operations, union spokesman Tezeu Bezerra.
A BHP Billiton and Vale joint venture in Brazil is facing its first civil lawsuit over the dam collapse at its iron ore mine on November 5 that buried a town and contaminated the region's main river.