Brazil

• Tuesday, February 3rd 2015 - 06:49 UTC

  Brazil's nominal budget deficit far worse than expected, 6.7% of GDP

  

  Brazil's federal, state and local governments ended 2014 with a cumulative primary budget deficit equivalent to 12.51 billion dollars putting public finances in the red for the first time since the current reporting methodology was adopted in 2001, the Central Bank announced.

• Tuesday, February 3rd 2015 - 06:35 UTC

  Brazil's Lower House elects as speaker a critic of President Rousseff's policies

  

  Brazil's Congress elected a conservative as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies on Sunday in a setback for the ruling Workers' Party that split President Dilma Rousseff's coalition and will complicate her legislative agenda.

• Saturday, January 31st 2015 - 10:44 UTC

  Moody's downgrades Petrobras credit rating because of corruption scandal

  

  Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the credit rating of Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras because of the widening kickback-corruption scandal affecting the country's largest corporation.The credit rating agency announced its decision late Thursday in a statement posted on its website.

• Friday, January 30th 2015 - 08:03 UTC

  Petrobras former CEO has assets frozen under court investigation

  

  A Brazilian state court froze the assets of former Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli amid an investigation of graft and money-laundering in the government-run oil producer's contracts with construction companies.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 07:23 UTC

  Petrobras releases long delayed 3Q results but did not include reserves for corruption scandal

  

  Brazil’s embattled Petrobras released its long delayed third quarter results Wednesday but did not include any reserves tied to an ongoing corruption scandal that has already landed three former executives in jail. The company recorded a third quarter 2014 net profit of 1.18 billion dollars, down from 1.32 billion during the same period last year.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 07:17 UTC

  Consumer confidence in Brazil drops in January to its lowest

  

  The reading of consumer confidence dropped in Brazil in January--to its lowest level ever--as the country's economy struggled. Brazil's main consumer-confidence index was at 89.8 points in January, down from 96.2 points in December, the Getulio Vargas Foundation, or FGV, said earlier this week.

• Wednesday, January 28th 2015 - 07:40 UTC

  Rousseff calls on fractious cabinet to embrace belt-tightening to restore growth

  

  Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has urged her cabinet to embrace fiscal belt-tightening and other measures aimed at restoring business confidence and growth in her second term.

• Monday, January 26th 2015 - 08:34 UTC

  Brazil supportive of Mercosur “as long as it does not turn into a burden”

  

  Brazil is ready to preserve the advances achieved by Mercosur but as long as the block does not turn into 'a burden' when it comes to negotiate trade agreements with third parties, according to Agriculture minister Katia Abreu.

• Saturday, January 24th 2015 - 05:32 UTC

  Argentina's CARI ranked as the highest Spanish language think-tank globally

  

  Two of the world’s leading 40 think-tanks are from Latin America, with the top spot in the region going to Brazil’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas. However Argentina's Council for International Relations, CARI, was ranked as the highest Spanish language think-tank on a global scale according to a report from the University of Pennsylvania Lauder Institute.

• Thursday, January 22nd 2015 - 06:39 UTC

  Brazil central bank increases basic rate to 12,25%, highest since August 2011

  

  Brazil's central bank raised interest rates to a more than three-year high on Wednesday, maintaining an aggressive pace of monetary tightening to contain high inflation, help the economy back on its tracks and win investors disillusioned with the once-booming economy.