
Brazil's central bank on Wednesday raised its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 11.75%. The rise came on the back of a one quarter point rise just over a month ago which was the first since April and in the wake of populist Dilma Rousseff's re-election as president, who last week appointed a new finance team to tackle rising inflation.

Argentine opposition lawmakers expressed concern about alleged logistic support from Brazil and Chile to British warships and other auxiliary vessels in the South Atlantic and demanded the government of president Cristina Fernández report to Congress on the matter.

Brazil posted a 2.35 billion dollars trade deficit in November, the country's worst monthly result in 20 years, and cementing its slide into the red for the year after a decade of surpluses.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has named business leader Armando Monteiro to head the industry and trade ministry in a new sign of more market-friendly policies as she tries to restore investor confidence and reignite economic growth.

US officials joined market analysts cutting Brazilian soybean production prospects thanks to a slow planting season, but maintained expectations of a, small, rise in exports to a record high.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff finally announced on Thursday the appointment of Joaquim Levy, as her next Finance minister who is also known as the 'scissors man', who pledged more realistic fiscal targets and promised more balanced economic growth.

Brazil's oil and gas giant Petrobras (and currently immersed in a major corruption scandal) has decided the appointment of a director of governance, risk management and compliance mainly to ensure risk mitigation and ensure the repeat of situations of fraud and corruption, according to a release from the corporation.

Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petrobras said on Monday it had received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission asking for documents relating to an investigation it is pursuing. The SEC investigation is the latest in a multi-layered probe into Petrobras which is spreading beyond Brazil’s borders.

Brazil's JBS, the world's biggest meat group, beefed up its growth in Australia with the 1.25bn dollars purchase of Primo Smallgoods Group. JBS said that through its JBS Australia business, it had paid Aus$1.45bn in cash for the supplier of the likes of ham and bacon to Oceania.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff already has the names for crucial posts in her new government, but they will not be announced until next Wednesday according to reports in Sao Paulo and Rio do Janeiro newspapers based on Planalto sources. But the names were sufficient to make the Sao Paulo stock exchange surge 5% on Friday.