Brazil's middle and high classes are the most supportive of the street demonstrations and protests that have turned out in the country's main cities since last June, according to the results of a public opinion poll from Datafolha Institute and published in the Sunday edition of Folha de Sao Paulo.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff will inaugurate on Tuesday in Paraguay next to his peer Horacio Cartes a high voltage transmission line from the world's largest operational hydroelectric dam Itaipú to metropolitan Asuncion, capital of the landlocked country and which was financed with Mercosur funds.
Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer Petrobras said third-quarter profit slid 40%, missing analysts’ estimates, on higher fuel imports and refining losses. Net income dropped to 3.39 billion Reais (1.55bn dollars) from 5.66 billion Reais a year earlier, the company said on Friday in a regulatory statement.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff responded to the International Monetary Fund concern over the country's fiscal situation, saying Brazil was fulfilling its responsibilities. IMF claimed that Brazil's competitiveness had eroded in recent months and downgraded the country's growth forecast from 4.25% to 3.5%.
Brazilian police fired tear gas and have arrested scores of protesters in the country's main city Sao Paulo when a march demanding free public transportation for students turned violent. The protest on Friday evening blocked key city streets and disrupted the public transportation system in the city of 11 million. Police reported the arrest of at least 78 people.
Brazil sold about 3.2 billion dollars of new global bonds due in 2025, more than twice the original launch amount, as it paid the largest premium over U.S. Treasuries for a similar maturity since 2009 (approx 4.3%). The National Treasury is also buying back about 2 billion dollars of high-coupon notes maturing between 2017 and 2030.
Former president Lula da Silva described the street protests that have shaken Brazil as something 'good and healthy' and said demands reveal that the Brazilian people have discovered that it is possible to aspire for more, although when as a union leader he marched I didn't destroy public or private property.
Uruguay and Brazil have concluded their proposals to present to the European Union and are waiting for Argentina and Paraguay, in the framework of current negotiations, delayed for years, to reach a free trade and cooperation agreement between the two blocs.
The British Science and Innovation Network and the Confederation of Brazilian Funding Agencies (Confap) have taken nine funding agencies to the United Kingdom for a week long of meetings with their counterparts and other scientific organizations and universities.
Brazil sold production rights to develop the giant offshore Libra oil area to a consortium led by Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA in an auction with a single bid on Monday. The auction in Rio do Janeiro took place amid strict security measures with hundreds of police forces clashing with protestors.