Brazil's economy shrank 1.9% in the second quarter, sinking into a recession that has hammered President Dilma Rousseff's popularity. The quarterly contraction, reported by government statistics agency IBGE on Friday, was bigger than what markets expected and confirms the worst slowdown for Brazil in nearly three decades.
The Brazilian government is considering reviving a financial transaction tax known as CPMF in a bid to shore up its finances in 2016, but the initiative apparently does not have sufficient support in Congress and President Dilma Rousseff's main coalition ally, PMDB, is not willing to make the presentation.