Brazil

• Thursday, November 12th 2015 - 08:07 UTC

  Petrobras striking workers consider salary offer but insist the company must reverse investment cuts

  

  Brazil's energy giant Petrobras offered striking workers a 9.54% wage hike on Wednesday in an effort to end a 10-day strike and prevent it from causing further production losses. But union officials said the deal makes almost no concessions on their most important demands. These include calls on Petrobras to reverse investment cuts and block planned assets sales designed to reduce Petrobras' debt.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2015 - 07:07 UTC

  Brazil's mining disaster impacts BHP Billiton shares on fears of cleanup costs

  

  Investors continued to dump shares in mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. following the deadly dam burst last week at its jointly owned iron-ore mine in Brazil, even as the company sought to clarify responsibility for the disaster that has already claimed the lives of three people.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 08:05 UTC

  Brazil's mining disaster forces cities 300km downstream to cut drinking water supply

  

  Mud and wastewater from burst dams at a Brazilian iron ore mine cut off drinking water and raised health and environmental concerns in cities more than 300 km downstream on Monday, amid increasingly dire search efforts in a village devastated by the mudslides.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 07:13 UTC

  Brazilian economy forecasted to contract 3.10%, says central bank survey

  

  Brazil's economy will contract by 3.10% this year, with the inflation rate hitting 9.99%, the Central Bank said Monday, citing its weekly survey of private sector economic analysts. Last week, analysts said they expected Brazil's economy to contract by 3.05% this year and the inflation rate to be 9.91%.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 06:49 UTC

  Another can of worms in Petrobras: 1.2bn dollars for a century old Texas refinery

  

  Brazilian officials are investigating allegations that Petrobras overpaid hundreds of millions of dollars for the Pasadena, Texas, refinery and funneled money into a massive kickback scheme that's led to dozens of convictions and arrests and fueled calls for the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, who chaired the company until 2010.

• Monday, November 9th 2015 - 08:54 UTC

  Brazil's annual inflation just below 10%, the highest in 12 years

  

  Brazil's annual inflation rate accelerated in October to just below 10%, the highest reading in almost 12 years, after sharp fuel and food price hikes. Consumer prices, as measured by the benchmark IPCA index, rose 9.93% in 12 months through October, up from 9.49% in September, statistics agency IBGE said in a release. In the first ten months of the year inflation reached 8.52%

• Monday, November 9th 2015 - 08:02 UTC

  Mining disaster in Brazil: 28 remain disappeared; BHP Billiton CEO flying to Minas Gerais

  

  Brazilian authorities are still struggling to determine what caused the rupture in dams at an iron ore mine and desperately working to recover the bodies of as many as 28 people believed to have been swept away in the massive mudflow and flood.

• Saturday, November 7th 2015 - 08:02 UTC

  Brazil truckers announce strike, and roadblocks, scheduled to begin Monday

  

  Independent truckers have called for roadblocks across Brazil starting Monday in a repeat of the two-week strike that delayed grain and meat transport in late February and early March. However it remains unclear how much support the strike movement has.

• Friday, November 6th 2015 - 14:16 UTC

  Petrobras strike strong support fuelled by resistance to sale of assets and cutting investments

  

  Brazilian union leaders say stronger than expected support for a strike at Petrobras is due to growing worker opposition to a creeping privatization of the state oil company. The strike, which began on Sunday, has become the biggest stoppage in two decades at Petrobras and shows workers back union efforts to renationalize the company and cut foreign participation in the oil industry, union leaders say.

• Friday, November 6th 2015 - 09:26 UTC

  Brazil central bank moves 4.5% inflation target timeframe to 2017

  

  The Brazilian central bank will take the necessary measures to bring inflation back to the 4.5% target in 2017, bank director Altamir Lopes, said on Thursday. It is the first time the bank has given a timeframe for reaching the center of its official target range after it dropped its outlook to meet this goal late 2016 due to a weaker Brazilian currency.