Argentina's Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich on Monday responded to Uruguay’s President José “Pepe” Mujica, who accused Argentina of “forgetting about integration” when things go right for the country, saying the statement was “unfair” given Argentina’s role in the “foundation” of regional integration.
Brazil needs to act quickly to stabilize its finances and get rid of measures used to stimulate growth during the global downturn in order to bolster expansion in 2016, Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said on Monday.
The Beija-Flor samba group was declared the champion of Rio de Janeiro's hotly contested Brazilian Carnival parade competition on Wednesday. However the group stoked controversy by staging a presentation focusing on Equatorial Guinea, run by Africa's longest-ruling dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
The government of President Dilma Rousseff is working to meet its primary budget surplus goal of 1.2% of GDP in 2015, pledged Finance minister Joaquim Levy on Wednesday to an audience of investors in New York.
Calls are growing in Brazil to impeach President Dilma Rousseff over a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal involving the state-run oil giant Petrobras. While the country celebrates its annual Carnival, with the 2015 Samba Competition wrapping up in Rio de Janeiro, there has been a growing clamor on the web and in the streets, with millions of Brazilians asking for the impeachment of their president.
Brazilian foreign minister Mauro Vieira discarded that the recent agreements reached by Argentina with China can interfere with Mercosur, while his Argentine counterpart Hector Timerman said that the package of accords with Beijing will actually benefit Mercosur.
Rolls-Royce has said it does not tolerate improper business after the Financial Times reported that the firm had been accused of being caught up in a bribery scandal in Brazil. Ft reported allegations that the company paid bribes for a contract with Brazilian oil firm Petrobras.
Retail sales in Brazil increased 2.2% in 2014 over the previous year, the smallest expansion in 11 years, the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, reported this week. The sector suffered its worst year since 2003 when sales tumbled 3.7%. In 2013, retail sales grew 4.3%.
Brazil's Congress passed legislation on Tuesday that limits the president's ability to reduce pork-barrel spending passed by lawmakers, a setback for President Dilma Rousseff's efforts to fight a fiscal deficit.
Argentina and Brazil failed to reach an agreement to help unlock the ongoing tension between the two key Mercosur allies over bilateral trade. Argentina's Hector Timerman and his counterpart Mauro Vieira met in Buenos Aires to try and ease Brazil’s growing concerns about restrictions on the flow of goods, but any decisions were pushed forward to an undetermined date.