Brazil

• Tuesday, May 10th 2016 - 06:03 UTC

  Lawmakers planning to remove House acting speaker who annulled Rousseff's impeachment process

  

  Waldir Maranaho's acting speaker post in Brazil's Lower House and his decision to annul the April 17 impeachment procedure vote against Dilma Rousseff, could be on the fire line, and even the countdown, following on fourteen parties decision to impede him from acting, according to Veja, Brazil's leading magazine.

• Monday, May 9th 2016 - 11:29 UTC

  Fitch downgrades Brazil's sovereign debt into junk territory, as political crisis deepens

  

  Fitch Ratings downgraded Brazil's sovereign debt further into junk territory on Thursday, citing a deeper-than-expected economic contraction and changing fiscal targets that have undermined credibility. The agency downgraded Brazil to BB from BB+ with a negative outlook a week before a Senate vote that is expected to lead to the suspension of unpopular leftist President Dilma Rousseff.

• Monday, May 9th 2016 - 11:20 UTC

  JBS denies making illegal payments for Rousseff's campaign in 2014

  

  JBS SA, the world's largest beef producer, denied a Saturday newspaper report that it had made illegal payments for President Dilma Rousseff's 2014 reelection campaign. O Globo newspaper, citing leaked testimony given to federal investigators by Monica Moura, the wife of Rousseff's campaign chief Joao Santana, earlier reported that JBS paid the Rousseff campaign's debt to Focal, a Sao Paulo-based visual communications firm.

• Monday, May 9th 2016 - 11:13 UTC

  Brazilian deputy asks the Supreme Court to block Rousseff's impeachment

  

  The deputy from the ruling Workers’ Party has appealed to Brazil’s Supreme Court in an effort to block the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff ahead of Wednesday’s Senate vote.

• Monday, May 9th 2016 - 09:17 UTC

  S&P raises Argentina's credit rating, but warns about the 40% inflation

  

  Argentina’s credit rating was raised to B- from selective default by S&P Global Ratings, which cited the country’s payment last Thursday of $2.7 billion of past-due interest on bonds in default since July 2014.

• Monday, May 9th 2016 - 09:04 UTC

  Brazilian prosecutors after another can of worms: the huge development bank

  

  A former Brazilian finance minister and the current head of the nation's state economic and social development bank allegedly pressured big construction firms into making campaign donations for President Dilma Rousseff, a newspaper reported on Sunday. If it proves correct it would be the first concrete lead linking the Petrobras corruption with BNDES, long suspected by Brazilian prosecution.

• Saturday, May 7th 2016 - 00:08 UTC

  A Temer government would allow full foreign control of Brazilian airlines

  

  A Brazilian government led by Vice-President Michel Temer would consider allowing foreign owners to acquire a controlling stake in local airlines, one of his closest aides revealed. Wellington Moreira Franco, a chief economic adviser for Temer and a former aviation minister, said relaxing the current limits on foreign ownership would help bolster competition in an industry suffering its worst crisis in decades.

• Friday, May 6th 2016 - 08:22 UTC

  Brazil's Lower House speaker removed by the Supreme Court on justice obstruction

  

  Brazil's Supreme Court removed the speaker of the lower house of Congress on Thursday on charges of obstructing a corruption investigation, days before an impeachment process that he engineered was expected to oust President Dilma Rousseff.

• Friday, May 6th 2016 - 08:07 UTC

  Folha exposes Rousseff's 'exit with dignity' next week and plans for a comeback strategy

  

  President Dilma Rousseff laid out the details last Monday for what she calls her “bunker of resistance”: a team of advisors to be installed in the Alvorada Palace next week. It will have a maximum of 15 members, according to a report to one of the main dailies, Folha de Sao Paulo.

• Thursday, May 5th 2016 - 11:27 UTC

  Petrobras sells stakes in Argentina and Chile, part of major divestment plan

  

  Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petrobras said it has concluded the sale of its 67.2% stake in Petrobras Argentina to Argentina’s Pampa Energía for US$ 892 million, according to a securities filing. Petrobras also sold all of Petrobras Chile Distribución to Southern Cross Group for about US$ 490 million as part of its divestment program, the company said.