President Dilma Rousseff said here Thursday that Brazil's economic woes are cyclical in nature that the austerity measures her administration has adopted to rectify the situation will begin to bear fruit late this year.
Brazil's Central Bank appears likely to continue raising interest rates in the short-term, saying in its most recent meeting that its inflation-fighting effort in recent months has been insufficiently effective. The view was reflected in the minutes, published on Thursday, of its monetary policy committee's March 4 meeting, when the bank raised its benchmark Selic interest rate by 50 basis points to 12.75%.
Brazil’s congressional heads denied involvement in the country’s largest graft scandal after being named among dozens of politicians for investigation. Renan Calheiros and Eduardo Cunha, the heads of the Senate and Lower House respectively, and Rio de Janeiro Senator Lindbergh Farias all rejected allegations of graft in the Petrobras kickback scheme dubbed “Carwash.”
Brazil and Mexico announced the renewal of vehicle quotas for four years, delaying the implementation of a free-trade agreement between the two countries. Under the new agreement, Brazil and Mexico will permit $1.56 billion of duty-free vehicle imports for the first year of the agreement. That amount will rise 3% each year until the agreement expires, in 2019, when they’ll return to a free-trade regime.
President Dilma Rousseff appealed to Brazilians on Sunday to back fiscal austerity policies, while saying that the belt-tightening will last as long as needed and results will only start showing at the end of this year.
Inflation jumped in Brazil on February with price increases hitting an annual rate of 7.7%, the highest in nearly nine years, officials said on Friday. The national statistics institute IBGE said prices rose 1.22% in February, pushing inflation well above the government's target ceiling of 6.5%.
Despite Brazil's 'violent devaluation' of its currency, Argentina will not pursue the same path because the country needs to give certainty and avoid instability said Economy minister Axel Kicillof. This week the Real plunged to its lowest level in over a decade burdened by economic and political uncertainty
A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday named a trustee of a British pension fund as the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras and its top executives.
Brazil’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 12.75% Wednesday, the highest level since 2009, as it struggles to get price increases under control amid sluggish economic growth and deepening political turmoil.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, (and her political mentor Lula da Silva), raced on Wednesday to defuse a rebellion by legislators upset about her budget austerity plans and her handling of a corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras, which now threatens political stability.