Brazil’s embattled Petrobras released its long delayed third quarter results Wednesday but did not include any reserves tied to an ongoing corruption scandal that has already landed three former executives in jail. The company recorded a third quarter 2014 net profit of 1.18 billion dollars, down from 1.32 billion during the same period last year.
The reading of consumer confidence dropped in Brazil in January--to its lowest level ever--as the country's economy struggled. Brazil's main consumer-confidence index was at 89.8 points in January, down from 96.2 points in December, the Getulio Vargas Foundation, or FGV, said earlier this week.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has urged her cabinet to embrace fiscal belt-tightening and other measures aimed at restoring business confidence and growth in her second term.
Brazil is ready to preserve the advances achieved by Mercosur but as long as the block does not turn into 'a burden' when it comes to negotiate trade agreements with third parties, according to Agriculture minister Katia Abreu.
Two of the world’s leading 40 think-tanks are from Latin America, with the top spot in the region going to Brazil’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas. However Argentina's Council for International Relations, CARI, was ranked as the highest Spanish language think-tank on a global scale according to a report from the University of Pennsylvania Lauder Institute.
Brazil's central bank raised interest rates to a more than three-year high on Wednesday, maintaining an aggressive pace of monetary tightening to contain high inflation, help the economy back on its tracks and win investors disillusioned with the once-booming economy.
A scantily clad group of female protesters drew a heavily breathing gaggle of journalists and cell-phone wielding onlookers to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. The protest was not meant to draw attention to another corruption scandal, police killing, or unwanted hike in transit fares, rather demand women’s right to sunbathe topless, a cause that most of the onlookers appeared to support.
Brazil on Monday announced tax increases on fuel, imports and consumer loans aimed at raising 20.6 billion Reais (7.7bn dollars) in additional revenues this year. The plan is part of an effort to help balance budget accounts and revive investor confidence, Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said at a news conference.
Rolling blackouts swept across parts of Brazil as the grid operator ordered select power cuts to avoid a larger crisis, drawing attention to a fragile electric system that is buckling under the strains of record-breaking heat and dryness.
Brazil's central bank is expected to raise interest rates for a third straight meeting this week to quell any doubts about its commitment to ending years of high inflation.