Brazil

• Wednesday, November 12th 2014 - 06:48 UTC

  US authorities looking into 'possible bribes' in the Petrobras corruption scandal

  

  United States authorities are investigating whether Brazil's giant gas and oil corporation Petrobras or its employees were paid bribes, adding to the mounting domestic corruption probes facing the state-controlled oil company.

• Wednesday, November 12th 2014 - 06:38 UTC

  Rousseff tells Congress it will miss the fiscal target; resigning minister calls for a “shock of credibility”

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday asked Congress to allow the government to deduct all of its investments and tax exemptions from a key 2014 fiscal target, effectively lowering a goal that it will miss for the third straight year.

• Tuesday, November 11th 2014 - 10:04 UTC

  Violent crime costs Brazil 5.4% of GDP; 2.212 people dead in police operations

  

  Violent crime cost Brazil 258 billion Reais (about 100 billion dollars) in 2013, a figure equivalent to 5.4% of the country's GDP, according to the new Brazilian Public Safety Annual Report, in which it is stated that an average of six people died in police operations each day during the year.

• Tuesday, November 11th 2014 - 04:16 UTC

  Unasur ready to help Venezuela organize a “major social pact” to overcome the current situation

  

  Venezuela needs a 'major social agreement' to adjust its economy and overcome the current and persistent political conflicts in the country, said Ernesto Samper, chairman of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) during a visit to Brasilia.

• Saturday, November 8th 2014 - 09:37 UTC

  Relief for Petrobras: Dilma allows increase in gasoline and diesel prices

  

  Brazil raised domestic wholesale gasoline and diesel prices for the first time in more than 11 months effective Friday in a move to bolster the finances of the heavily indebted Petrobras oil and gas company after years of refining losses.

• Friday, November 7th 2014 - 22:44 UTC

  Despite Rousseff, extreme poverty grows for the first time in a decade

  

  The number of Brazilians living in extreme poverty grew for the first time in a decade, according to government figures. The Institute of Economic Research reported that the number of people in households with incomes below the poverty threshold of 30 dollars rose from 10.1 to 10.5 million people, which means a 3.7% increase.

• Wednesday, November 5th 2014 - 04:06 UTC

  “Mercosur and Pacific Alliance are not contradictory competing blocks”

  

  Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance are not contradictory competing blocks, and can advance towards a mutually beneficial convergence, said Chile's Economy minister Luis Felipe Cespedes during a trade and investment promotion seminar in Brazil.

• Tuesday, November 4th 2014 - 09:22 UTC

  Brazil with the largest trade deficit for October in 16 years

  

  Brazil ran a trade deficit of 1.17 billion last month, the largest shortfall for October in 16 years, the government said on Monday. Imports totaled 19.5bn, while exports amounted to 18.3bn, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade said in a report.

• Tuesday, November 4th 2014 - 04:53 UTC

  Bankers' names for Finance minister in Rousseff's next government

  

  Brazilian banker Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi, president of Bradesco, turned down an invitation from president Dilma Rousseff to occupy the Finance ministry as of next January first. According to the Sao Paulo financial publication Valor, there was no insistence on the issue from political sources.

• Monday, November 3rd 2014 - 11:14 UTC

  President Dilma Rousseff's re-election exposes a divided Brazil

  

  The re-election of President Dilma Rousseff's in Brazil has exposed a deeply divided country with an overwhelming support for the incumbent in the impoverished northeast, where millions receive benefits from huge welfare programs the ruling Workers Party (PT) has rolled out over the past decade.