Brazil's unemployment rate rose for a seventh straight month in July to the highest in over five years, government data showed on Thursday. The non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose in July to 7.5% from 6.9% in June, statistics agency IBGE said.
Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday asked the Federal Supreme Court to authorize prosecution of the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, in a massive corruption case centered on state-controlled oil giant Petrobras.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and several other high-ranking German politicians touched down in Brazil's capital, Brasilia late Wednesday. The German delegation set off on its 12-hour flight immediately after a Bundestag vote approving a new bailout package for Greece.
Brazil's Senate approved a bill to roll back payroll tax breaks on Wednesday that is a key measure in President Dilma Rousseff's efforts to reduce a gaping fiscal deficit and restore confidence in her government's accounts. The Senate voted 45-27 to pass the bill which was received from the lower house with no changes.
Camargo Correa Construcoes e Participacoes, one of Brazil's largest construction companies, has admitted its role in a massive scheme to overcharge state-controlled oil company Petrobras and agreed to cooperate in the investigation as part of a leniency deal, anti-trust agency Cade said Wednesday.
Economic activity in Brazil fell more quickly than expected in June, central bank data showed on Wednesday, adding to evidence that the once-booming economy is suffering a painful recession. The Brazilian central bank's IBC-Br economic activity index fell 0.58% in June from the prior month, the bank said in a report released on Wednesday.
A Brazilian judge sentenced Nestor Cervero, former international chief of state-run oil firm Petrobras, to just over 12 years in prison on Monday for corruption and money laundering related to a bribe allegedly paid to the speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress.
The Brazilian Central Bank weekly Focus Bulletin released on Monday indicates, for the first time, according to the prevailing opinion among financial institutions that the current recession of the country's economy will extend well into 2016. According to Focus the market forecasts a retraction of the Brazil's GDP of 0.15% in 2016.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Brazil to call for the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, whom they blame for a vast corruption scandal and the economy's worst slump in a quarter-century. Less than a year into her tumultuous second term, the president's support has dwindled to single digits in recent polls, while two in three support calls for her impeachment.
Uruguay's foreign minister said on Friday that nobody supports the proposal from the Brazilian Senate president Renan Calheiros to put an end to the Mercosur customs union. However he did point out that he proposal exposed that the block effectively is 'not working' and needs to have its foundations reviewed.