Brazil

• Saturday, August 5th 2017 - 07:55 UTC

  Mercosur foreign ministers will discuss the Venezuela situation in Brazil

  

  Mercosur foreign ministers are scheduled to meet this Saturday in Sao Paulo to decide on to how to address latest events in Venezuela, the fifth member of the group which remains suspended, and so far has not replied to calls to cancel the constituent assembly procedure and attempt some form of dialogue with the political opposition.

• Friday, August 4th 2017 - 08:09 UTC

  Temer expected to retake reforms agenda with Congress, but how strong is he?

  

  Brazil's Congress is expected to reopen the door for a modest pension overhaul as soon as October, lawmakers said before returning to normal business on Thursday following a vote to block a corruption trial against President Michel Temer. Still, legislators warned that Temer must spend some of his newfound political capital either on measures raising tax revenue or a new, less ambitious 2017 budget target.

• Thursday, August 3rd 2017 - 23:14 UTC

  Brazilian economy struggling to climb out of deep recession

  

  Brazil revealed mixed economic reports: record trade surplus, slight drop in unemployment and a stable industrial output. The July trade surplus was US$6.298, according to government data. Exports totaled US$18.769 billion and imports US$12.471 billion. This follows a surplus of US$7.195 billion in June.

• Thursday, August 3rd 2017 - 21:45 UTC

  Brazil's Judge Moro claims there is lack of interest from the political establishment to fight corruption

  

  Brazilian federal judge Sergio Moro, the man behind Brazil's largest ever corruption investigation, said there is still lack of interest from the country's political establishment to fight corruption, despite the political and economic crisis the practice sent the country into.

• Thursday, August 3rd 2017 - 21:34 UTC

  Private investors decide to return Brazilian airport concession: business half of what was projected

  

  Shareholders of a company set up to run Brazil's Viracopos airport have decided to return the concession to the government to seek other bidders in a new auction, they said, citing unexpectedly low passenger traffic.

• Thursday, August 3rd 2017 - 07:01 UTC

  Canny Temer survives vote in the Lower House: “a clear undisputable victory”

  

  Brazilian lawmakers tossed out a corruption charge against scandal-plagued President Michel Temer on Wednesday, saving the conservative leader from becoming the country’s second leader in 12 months to be forced from office. Despite hugely embarrassing bribery allegations, Temer had been expected to survive.

• Wednesday, August 2nd 2017 - 07:12 UTC

  To save or not to save Temer, Brazilian lawmakers' challenge in an televised live vote on a bribery charge

  

  August has been a devastating month for Brazilian presidents, 31 days in which they have been impeached or resigned. One even committed suicide, Getulio Vargas in 1954, and for Michel Temer's own predecessor, ex president Dilma Rousseff, it was her demise when she was removed last Aug. 31 for breaking fiscal rules in her management of the budget.

• Tuesday, August 1st 2017 - 06:36 UTC

  Hammond in Brazil announced the doubling of support for bilateral trade

  

  The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has unveiled a series of new commercial agreements with Brazil on Monday, on day one of his visit to showcase British business and deepen trade and economic ties with South America’s biggest economies. Among the measures has been doubling support to £3 billion, to promote bilateral trade.

• Monday, July 31st 2017 - 08:10 UTC

  Decisive vote in Brazilian lower house for president Temer's future in office

  

  The Brazilian Congress will return from recess this week and could bring back political uncertainty fears to local markets, as lawmakers are set to decide on Wednesday if the Supreme Court should trial President Michel Temer for corruption. Temer was formally charged with passive corruption by the prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot at the end of last month.

• Saturday, July 29th 2017 - 23:29 UTC

  Brazilian budget remains at record breaking deficit

  

  Brazil posted another large budget deficit in June, the biggest on record for the month, highlighting the government's uphill battle to meet its budget target amid a slow economic recovery. The monthly primary deficit, before interest rate payments, narrowed in June to 19.552 billion reais (US$6.21 billion) from 30.7 billion in May.