Brazil

• Thursday, December 24th 2015 - 10:56 UTC

  Brazil is suing BHP and Vale 'at least' US$ 5bn for Minas Gerais mining disaster

  

  A Brazilian federal court has ordered BHP Billiton and Vale to set aside US$ 491.5 million, with the possibility of billions more, has frozen the mining giants' assets in the country, and ordered it to carry out extensive environmental and social work in the region hit by a dam burst at its joint venture.

• Thursday, December 24th 2015 - 08:57 UTC

  Brazilian economy will contract 3.6% this year confirms Central bank

  

  Brazil's economy will shrink 3.6% this year and inflation will come in at 10.8%, according to a Central Bank report released Wednesday. The bank expects a continued recession in 2016, albeit with a less severe contraction of 1.9%, and an inflation rate of 6.2%.

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2015 - 10:07 UTC

  Brazil's Barbosa insists fiscal policies to shrink budget deficit “will be maintained”

  

  Brazil’s new finance minister, Nelson Barbosa, continued his effort to win over investors on Tuesday reiterating that the government of president Dilma Rousseff will maintain the same fiscal policies intended to shrink the budget deficit and cut debt that were favored by his predecessor.

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2015 - 09:42 UTC

  Rousseff off the hook until February: Supreme Court and Congress in recess

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Tuesday that her opponents' bid to impeach her has no legal basis since there are no charges against her. At the opening of a metro station in the northeastern city of Salvador, Rousseff said a country cannot resort to impeachment just because it does not like its president, and said Brazil should focus on restoring economic growth and creating jobs.

• Wednesday, December 23rd 2015 - 08:46 UTC

  Despite falling oil prices, Brazil is developing the equatorial Barreirinhas basin

  

  Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), the world's leading maritime and logistics service provider, has signed a contract with CGG to provide offshore agency support services for a new oil and gas exploration project in the Barreirinhas Basin in the equatorial margin of northern Brazil.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2015 - 14:49 UTC

  Brazil's new minister promises the same Levy targets, but fails to convince investors

  

  Brazil's new finance minister sought to reassure investors on Monday as he took the reins of the recession-hit economy, but the Sao Paulo stock market and the Brazilian real both fell. In his first full business day on the job, Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa held a teleconference with international investors, promising to practice the same fiscal discipline as his predecessor, Joaquim Levy.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2015 - 14:37 UTC

  Rousseff's impeachment support score almost a tie, but 60% prepared to remove speaker Cunha

  

  An estimated 42% of Brazilian Lower House lawmakers (513) are prepared to support the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, which is equivalent to 215 votes. But the impeachment motion requires at least 342 votes, two thirds of the total number, which means supporters are still 127 votes short. These numbers belong to a Congress members survey from Datafolha, which was taken between December 7 and 18.

• Tuesday, December 22nd 2015 - 14:31 UTC

  Brazil welcomes and supports Macri's policies regarding the dollar and trade

  

  The Brazilian government has welcomed Argentina's realistic foreign exchange policy unifying the Argentine peso exchange rate, saying the latest economic measures taken by the Mauricio Macri administration will be “very positive” for the commercial relationship between the two countries.

• Saturday, December 19th 2015 - 06:39 UTC

  Rousseff picks Barbosa as finance minister, a strong critic of Levy and austerity

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Friday picked her close aide Nelson Barbosa, a left-leaning economist, to take over the finance ministry from Joaquim Levy who is leaving after a series of disagreements over economic policy.

• Saturday, December 19th 2015 - 02:40 UTC

  Close friend of Lula da Silva formally charged in the Petrobras corruption case

  

  The sprawling Petrobras corruption scandal web is again close to former president Lula da Silva, this landowner Jose Carlos Bumlai, arrested during Operation Lava Jato, was charged with corruption, money laundering and fraud.