Brazil

• Thursday, January 14th 2016 - 05:48 UTC

  Rio mayor confident the city has the funds to host the 2016 Olympic Games

  

  The mayor of 2016 Olympic host city Rio de Janeiro insisted authorities had the finances to avoid disruption to the summer Games despite Brazil’s recession. Latin America's largest economy is suffering from a deep recession and soaring inflation -- a contrast to the boom times of 2009, when Rio won the right to host the Olympics.

• Wednesday, January 13th 2016 - 08:11 UTC

  Brazil agribusiness exports, the locomotive of foreign trade

  

  Brazil's total agricultural exports slid 8.8% to US$88.2 billion in 2015, compared to the previous year, despite record sales of soybeans, corn, chicken, coffee and cellulose, officials said. The drop in sales was caused by falling prices for the commodities Brazil sells on the global market, Foreign Agribusiness Relations Secretary Tatiana Palermo said.

• Wednesday, January 13th 2016 - 07:59 UTC

  Former Petrobras manager states in plea-bargain that Lula was aware of the corruption scheme

  

  Former head of Petrobras' international sector Nestor Cervero has made a statement as part of his plea bargain, in which he says that Brazilian former president Lula a Silva gave him a job in 2008 as “recognition” for his help in repaying a R$12 million (US$3 million) loan considered fraudulent by police.

• Wednesday, January 13th 2016 - 05:06 UTC

  Crucial February for Rousseff: economic plan must convince investors and Congress

  

  With her job on the line, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is spending January developing an economic plan which she hopes will restore faith in her leadership and weaken looming impeachment proceedings against her.

• Tuesday, January 12th 2016 - 06:50 UTC

  Brazilian prosecutors looking into possible foreign and local banks involvemrny in Petrobras corruption

  

  Brazil's federal tax authority and prosecutors are investigating 13 foreign and local banks for possible financial crimes intermediating loans to Brazilian engineering conglomerate Grupo Schahin, newspaper O Estado de S Paulo says.

• Monday, January 11th 2016 - 14:09 UTC

  Rioting and clashes with police in Sao Paulo and Rio to complain transport fares

  

  Brazilian riot police on Saturday evening fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a violent protest against a rise in public transport fares in the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo. Television images showed small groups of rock-throwing, masked youths clashing with police in the centre of the metropolis, amid burning piles of rubbish.

• Saturday, January 9th 2016 - 11:29 UTC

  Brazilian industry contracts 12.4% in the year to November; auto production down 23%

  

  Brazilian industry contracted in November, breaking all negative estimates as the country’s worst recession in decades deepened. Industrial production declined 2.4% from October in seasonally adjusted terms and 12.4% from November 2014, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, said.

• Saturday, January 9th 2016 - 11:26 UTC

  Brazil' inflation hit a 13-year high in 2015, and double the government's target

  

  Brazil's inflation rate hit a 13-year high in 2015, in what analysts called the result of years of economic mismanagement, worsened by a political crisis in Latin America's biggest economy. Annual inflation reached 10.67% in 2015, the government said Friday, the highest rate since 2002 and more than double the government's 4.5% target.

• Friday, January 8th 2016 - 18:15 UTC

  Petrobras plans further 2016/20 investments cuts, says Sao Paulo media

  

  Brazil state-run hydrocarbons giant Petrobras will reportedly present a five-year investment plan next month with a target lower than the US$19 billion plan announced last year. Despite two budget cuts last year, Petrobras' plans for the 2016 to 2020 period will include a further drop, with the cuts expected to come from onshore and shallow-water areas, according to a report in the Brazilian daily Estado de S Paulo.

• Friday, January 8th 2016 - 11:51 UTC

  Rousseff vows 'fiscal belt-tightening' but 'there's no rabbit in the hat' for the current situation

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff vowed Thursday that her administration would strive for fiscal belt-tightening and look to keep inflation in check in 2016, saying achieving those goals would help lift the economy out of recession.