Brazilian officials say inflation in January was the highest monthly jump in almost six years. The government's IBGE statistics bureau said that January inflation was 0.83%, the biggest monthly jump since April 2005, when inflation was 0.87%.
United States Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will visit Monday Brazil to discuss economic cooperation. Geithner is scheduled to return on the same day.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will discuss with her U.S. counterpart Barack Obama ways to counteract the threat posed by an undervalued Yuan and cheap imports from China, a Brazilian official said.
Brazil is to provide free medicines for everyone suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes. The drugs will be distributed as of next month through a nationwide network of budget pharmacies, where many medicines are already heavily subsidised.
Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Héctor Timerman revealed Tuesday that the trade deficit Argentina has with Brazil is “concerning”, and indicated that both nations are working “to reduce it.”
Emerging market countries such as Brazil and Argentina must take a stronger position against competitive depreciations, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told Argentine press on Sunday.
In her first overseas visit as Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff ratified Monday in Buenos Aires the “special strategic” relation with Argentina while her counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, CFK, called for an “increased productive integration” between the two leading Mercosur partners.
Building will now begin on what will be the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam after Ibama, Brazil's environment agency, gave the go-ahead for the controversial $17 billion (£10.6 billion) project.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will arrive in Argentina on Monday on her first foreign trip as president.
United States President Barack Obama has announced that he will pay his first visit to Brazil and other South American countries in March.