Brazil

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 10:02 UTC

  Brazil central bank keeps rates unchanged for the ninth straight time

  

  Brazil's central bank kept interest rates at a decade high for the ninth straight time on Wednesday, but did not discard a cut rate later this year if stubbornly high inflation subsides. In a unanimous vote, the bank's monetary policy committee, Copom, kept its benchmark Selic rate at 14.25%, its highest since July 2006.

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 07:21 UTC

  Temer promises “new era” and warns he will not tolerate divisions in the ruling coalition

  

  Brazil's new president, Michel Temer, promised a “new era” of government for the crisis-hit country Wednesday, shortly after being sworn in following the impeachment of his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff. Earlier, the Brazilian senate voted 61-20 to remove Rousseff from office for breaking federal budget laws.

• Wednesday, August 31st 2016 - 20:29 UTC

  Brazil's political system confirms President Temer, removes 'outsider' Rousseff

  

  The Brazilian Senate on Wednesday midday impeached suspended president Dilma Rousseff, and removed her from office for the rest of her term, ending a power struggle that has consumed the nation for months but has not solved any of its mounting problems, rather the contrary. Vice-president and interim president Michel Temer will formally replace the first woman president of the country.

• Wednesday, August 31st 2016 - 05:03 UTC

  Norway's Statoil and Petrobras expand strategic alliance and cooperation

  

  Norways' StatOil and Petrobras have signed a memo of understanding to strengthen their cooperation in Brazil. The two major companies are are already partners in 13 blocks and the intention of the MoU is to evaluate joint participation in future tenders for exploration areas and to increase upstream collaboration in producing fields in the Santos and Campos offshore basins.

• Wednesday, August 31st 2016 - 04:56 UTC

  Brazil's unemployment reaches 11.6% with an estimated 11.8 million jobless

  

  Brazil's unemployment rate rose to 11.6% in the three months through July the statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday. Brazil's jobless rate has risen sharply from 6.5% at the end of 2014 as the country entered its worst recession in decades.

• Wednesday, August 31st 2016 - 03:43 UTC

  Rousseff's fate has been decided: Senate will make it formal on Wednesday

  

  The Brazilian Senate heard for the last time on Tuesday the arguments of the defense and prosecution in the impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff, and now prepares to issue its decision on the case.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2016 - 04:47 UTC

  Rousseff claims impeachment is a new type of coup; street protests in her support

  

  Brazil's suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, took the stand on Monday at her impeachment trial in the Senate, delivering a last-ditch defense to prevent her final removal from office. “Don’t expect from me the obliging silence of cowards,” Ms. Rousseff, 68, said in a withering attack on her opponents at the start of her testimony.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2016 - 04:38 UTC

  Mercosur members who disagree and don't accept consensus “can walk out”...

  

  Paraguay said Mercosur will continue to function and is waiting for a reply from Uruguay to confirm a collegiate presidency of the block, until Argentina takes the helm at the end of the year. If not, “Mercosur members are well aware that the the same way they decided to belong to the group, they can walk away...”

• Sunday, August 28th 2016 - 03:56 UTC

  Rousseff takes the stand on Monday, following the round of defense witnesses

  

  Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's former economy minister testified Saturday that Rousseff did not break any laws justifying impeachment, as her trial closed in on next week's climax. Rousseff is accused of taking illegal state loans to help bridge budget shortfalls and mask the true state of the economy during her 2014 reelection campaign. The president argues the charges are trumped up and amount to a rightwing coup.

• Saturday, August 27th 2016 - 05:45 UTC

  Mercosur founding members confident of a solution to the Venezuela situation

  

  The foreign ministers of Mercosur founding members will adopt a common position regarding the current disarray of the group following on Venezuela's unilateral attitudes said Paraguayan economic affairs and integration deputy minister Rigoberto Gauto.