Brazil

• Saturday, August 30th 2014 - 11:49 UTC

  Marina pledges to restore Brazil credibility and limit spending below growth rate

  

  Opposition presidential candidate Marina Silva said that Brazil's recession is very worrying and her government would work to restore the credibility of the country's economic policies to recover investment and growth if elected. The Brazilian economy fell into recession in the first half of the year, a heavy blow for President Dilma Rousseff's already diminishing hopes of winning re-election in October.

• Saturday, August 30th 2014 - 10:53 UTC

  Brazil in recession; Minister Mantega blames external factors and World Cup

  

  Brazil has fallen into recession, further weakening President Dilma Rousseff, just weeks before voting in what will be a tough re-election battle. Brazil's national statistics institute said Friday GDP shrank 0.6% in the second quarter and revised an initially positive first quarter growth estimate down to -0.2 percent.

• Saturday, August 30th 2014 - 08:24 UTC

  Marina's advisors: economists graduated in Cambridge and MIT and the heir to Brazil's largest bank

  

  Two economists with graduate studies in Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a lawyer considered one of the most influential members of Congress and with a PhD from Oxford, plus the heir of a banking empire, the largest in Brazil, and philanthropist, are identified as the closest aides and advisors of Marina Silva, with increasing chances of becoming Brazil's next president in October.

• Friday, August 29th 2014 - 06:46 UTC

  Mercosur main partners in another attempt to re-launch withering economies

  

  Argentine Economy minister Axel Kicillof left Buenos Aires on Thursday for Brazil, where he will meet with fellow ministers from the country to discuss the current situation of bilateral trade and the automotive industry.

• Thursday, August 28th 2014 - 06:51 UTC

  Marina leaps ahead in presidential debate; wants brightest minds to join her government

  

  A surging Marina Silva took Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff to task in an election debate Tuesday night when she touted her government's achievements in improving social conditions and defending wages in the midst of global economic crisis.

• Tuesday, August 26th 2014 - 07:35 UTC

  Brazilian consumers’ confidence at its lowest in more than five years

  

  Brazil's consumer confidence deteriorated sharply in August to its lowest level in more than five years, the think tank FGV said Monday. The consumer confidence index fell to 102.3 from 106.9 in July. The score was the lowest since April 2009, when it was 99.7. In July, the index had risen strongly from April's 103.8.

• Saturday, August 23rd 2014 - 06:50 UTC

  Brazil approves port infrastructure works for 1.73bn in Rio and Santos

  

  Brazil's National Port Authority and Waterways has approved 1.73bn dollars in port infrastructure works to be carried out by three local operators: steelmaker CSN, container terminal operator Santos Brazil and US food and agribusiness firm Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM).

• Friday, August 22nd 2014 - 07:07 UTC

  Depressed Brazilian economy becomes focus of presidential campaign

  

  With less than two months to the crucial 5 October presidential election, Brazil's Central Bank continued to battle economic turmoil increasing the credit available for commercial loans in the hope of boosting the country’s stagnant growth figures.

• Thursday, August 21st 2014 - 06:46 UTC

  Environmentalist Marina presidential candidate but with a pro-agribusiness in the ticket

  

  Environmentalist Marina Silva officially has launched a bid for president, upending Brazil's October 5 elections and threatening the ruling Workers' Party's 12-year hold on power. So far a vice-presidential candidate for the Brazilian Socialist Party, Marina accepted the nomination to top the ticket after candidate Eduardo Campos, a former governor and rising political star, was killed in a plane crash last week.

• Wednesday, August 20th 2014 - 09:50 UTC

  Dilma admits many problems plague Brazil but refuses to talk about corruption in her party

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff acknowledged “many problems and challenges” still plague the country's woeful heath system but defended her record on the economy and education on a live 15-minute interview on the Globo television network's nightly news.