Brazil

• Friday, April 10th 2015 - 05:24 UTC

  Rousseff declares Petrobras 'clean' after purging corrupt managers and practices

  

  Brazil's State-run oil company Petrobras has purged corrupt managers and put a graft scandal behind it, while hitting record output levels from offshore deposits, President Dilma Rousseff said Thursday. The indictment of former senior executives of Petrobras the investigation of dozens of political allies of Rousseff in the multibillion-dollar kickback scandal has thrown her government into crisis and undermined investor confidence in Brazil.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 04:24 UTC

  Royal Dutch Shell buys BG Group for £47 Billion. Becomes main foreign oil producer in Brazil

  

  Oil and gas company Shell has agreed to buy British rival BG Group for the equivalent of 70 billion dollars, making Europe's largest oil company the pre-eminent player in global natural gas and adding world-class fields in Brazil. The deal may signal a new wave of mega-mergers as the energy industry tries to adapt to lower prices.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 03:28 UTC

  Brazilian ruling coalition members sign letter pledging to support austerity package

  

  Brazilian congressional leaders within President Dilma Rousseff's coalition signed a joint letter on Wednesday pledging to support her austerity package, an unexpected sign that the ties with her unruly coalition are improving. The deal was brokered by Vice President Michel Temer on his first day as the official go-between tasked with mending Rousseff's tense relations with coalition lawmakers.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 01:35 UTC

  Brazil inflation soars as electricity rates go up 22% in March and 60.42% in the last 12 months

  

  Consumer prices in Brazil picked up in March, putting the 12-month rate at the highest level in more than eleven years, highlighting one of the main challenges facing Latin America's largest economy in the year ahead. The rolling 12-month IPCA was up 8.13% through March, up from 7.70% in February, remaining well above the central bank's 6.5% ceiling. In the first quarter of the year, prices have risen 3.83%, while the 12-month figure marked the highest level since December 2003, when it reached 9.30%.

• Wednesday, April 8th 2015 - 18:26 UTC

  Santos port soy exports expected to resume at slow pace after six-day fire

  

  Brazil’s soy exports will likely slow because a six-day fire at a nearby fuel-storage facility has restricted access to Brazil’s largest port, Santos, a port official and the soy industry association Abiove said. Authorities have agreed to restrict truck access to some terminals at the port at least through Wednesday while flames are extinguished.

• Monday, April 6th 2015 - 17:15 UTC

  Santos port four-day fire raging; efforts concentrated in stopping flames from spreading

  

  A fire at a fuel storage facility near Brazil's largest port Santos entered its fourth day on Sunday as 110 firefighters worked to stop the flames from spreading further, the local fire department said.

• Monday, April 6th 2015 - 16:56 UTC

  Brazilian economy to contract 2% this year, and inflation 9% predicts French bank

  

  BNP Paribas said in Sao Paulo that it expects Brazil's gross domestic product to shrink 2% this year, or double the contraction the French financial services company had projected one quarter ago.

• Thursday, April 2nd 2015 - 08:20 UTC

  Brazil’s industrial production drops in February; 11 out of 24 sectors down

  

  Brazil's industrial production dropped in February after a momentary uptick at the beginning of the year, as factories and mines braced for what economists say could be the country's worst year in more than two decades.

• Thursday, April 2nd 2015 - 07:31 UTC

  Brazil oil industry wants new auction rights rules and more efficient sourcing requirements

  

  The Brazilian Petroleum Institute, or IBP, has called on the government to change the regulatory framework to deal with the crisis caused by the collapse of oil prices and the corruption scandal at state-controlled oil giant Petrobras.

• Thursday, April 2nd 2015 - 07:27 UTC

  Rousseff “we will do whatever it takes to meet 2015 fiscal target”

  

  Brazil's government will do whatever it takes to meet its 2015 fiscal target, President Dilma Rousseff said on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News.