US President Barack Obama announced that Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff will visit Washington on June 30, almost two years after she cancelled a trip over a US spying scandal. Obama made the announcement during a bilateral meeting with Rousseff, on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama City.
Brazilian police arrested on Friday three former congressmen broadening their corruption investigation beyond state-run oil giant Petrobras to state lender Caixa Economica Federal and the federal health ministry.
Fitch Ratings lowered Thursday the outlook on Brazil's investment grade BBB rating to negative, warning that government efforts to turn around the economy risked getting derailed. The Brazilian economy, the world's seventh-largest, stagnated with just 0.1% growth last year as the drag of rising inflation erased the effect of hosting the football World Cup in June and July and gearing up for the Rio Olympics next year.
Brazil's State-run oil company Petrobras has purged corrupt managers and put a graft scandal behind it, while hitting record output levels from offshore deposits, President Dilma Rousseff said Thursday. The indictment of former senior executives of Petrobras the investigation of dozens of political allies of Rousseff in the multibillion-dollar kickback scandal has thrown her government into crisis and undermined investor confidence in Brazil.
Oil and gas company Shell has agreed to buy British rival BG Group for the equivalent of 70 billion dollars, making Europe's largest oil company the pre-eminent player in global natural gas and adding world-class fields in Brazil. The deal may signal a new wave of mega-mergers as the energy industry tries to adapt to lower prices.
Brazilian congressional leaders within President Dilma Rousseff's coalition signed a joint letter on Wednesday pledging to support her austerity package, an unexpected sign that the ties with her unruly coalition are improving. The deal was brokered by Vice President Michel Temer on his first day as the official go-between tasked with mending Rousseff's tense relations with coalition lawmakers.
Consumer prices in Brazil picked up in March, putting the 12-month rate at the highest level in more than eleven years, highlighting one of the main challenges facing Latin America's largest economy in the year ahead. The rolling 12-month IPCA was up 8.13% through March, up from 7.70% in February, remaining well above the central bank's 6.5% ceiling. In the first quarter of the year, prices have risen 3.83%, while the 12-month figure marked the highest level since December 2003, when it reached 9.30%.
Brazil’s soy exports will likely slow because a six-day fire at a nearby fuel-storage facility has restricted access to Brazil’s largest port, Santos, a port official and the soy industry association Abiove said. Authorities have agreed to restrict truck access to some terminals at the port at least through Wednesday while flames are extinguished.
A fire at a fuel storage facility near Brazil's largest port Santos entered its fourth day on Sunday as 110 firefighters worked to stop the flames from spreading further, the local fire department said.
BNP Paribas said in Sao Paulo that it expects Brazil's gross domestic product to shrink 2% this year, or double the contraction the French financial services company had projected one quarter ago.