MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's unemployment increased in March to 6.2% from February’s 5.7%

Santander is the largest Euro zone bank by market capitalization

Brazil's unemployment rate increased from the previous month in March, data released by statistical office IBGE showed Thursday.The unemployment rate increased to 6.2% in March from 5.7% in February. In March, 2011, the jobless rate was 6.5%.

The Euro zone's largest bank by market capitalization said its net profit in the January-March period was 1.6 billion Euros. Revenue grew by more than 8% to 11.4 billion.

That income gain, however, was offset by bigger loan losses -- Santander set aside 3.1 billion Euros in provisions, up 51% from the same quarter of 2011.

Banco Santander S.A. said non-performing loans amounted to 3.9% of its portfolio, an increase of 0.37 percentage points. In recession-plagued Spain, the ratio rose 1.18 points to 5.75%.

Spain's banking sector, much of which is heavily exposed to an imploded real estate bubble, is a key source of worry that the Euro zone's fourth-largest economy might be headed toward needing a bailout as Greece, Ireland and Portugal did.

Some analysts say that big losses at banks could overwhelm public finances. Those concerns, however, mostly relate to smaller, regional banks.

In fact, Santander, which has diversified its business outside Spain and Europe, said its capital buffers remained strong, with a core capital ratio of 9.11%. European regulators had demanded banks bring this ratio -- a key measure of a bank's health -- above 9% by June.