Brazil

• Wednesday, September 5th 2012 - 05:34 UTC

  Several heavy players after Marfrig assets, which has to reduce debt

  

  Marfrig Alimentos SA, Brazil’s second-biggest food company, is attracting the interest of Blackstone Group LP and Tyson Foods Inc. for a plan to sell a stake, three people with direct knowledge of the talks said.

• Wednesday, September 5th 2012 - 01:07 UTC

  President Rousseff hints to further stimuli measures for manufacturing sector

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said her government would continue with the policy of reducing labour costs to favour companies and improve their competitiveness and hinted that new initiatives referred to power costs for industry could be in the pipeline.

• Wednesday, September 5th 2012 - 01:01 UTC

  Tax cuts and lower rates help record car sales in Brazil during August: 400.00 units

  

  Brazil car sales rose to a record 400,000 units in August as tax cuts and lower borrowing costs spur consumer spending. Fiat, the country’s biggest automaker, said that tax cuts that took effect in May and were extended last week through October spurred industry sales of cars and light vehicles last month.

• Wednesday, September 5th 2012 - 00:52 UTC

  Brazilian industrial production up 0.3% in July, but still unconvincing

  

  Brazilian industrial production rose a stronger-than-expected 0.3% in July from June, government statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday. July was the second positive number following three straight months of declining output.

• Wednesday, September 5th 2012 - 00:35 UTC

  Tourist arrivals in Chile keep growing but concentrated on Argentina and Brazil

  

  International arrivals in Chile in the first half of the year showed a significant growth of 15% compared to the same period a year before, having totalled 1.850.048 tourists, according to the Chilean Tourism Barometer compiled by Fedetur, the Federation of Tourism companies from Chile.

• Tuesday, September 4th 2012 - 06:15 UTC

  Rousseff comes out in defence of a very much questioned Lula da Silva legacy

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has come out in defence of her predecessor and political mentor Lula de Silva who was the target of strong criticisms from another former president Fernando Enrique Cardoso.

• Tuesday, September 4th 2012 - 00:25 UTC

  Nearly 11.500 humpback whales counted off the coast of Brazil

  

  Whales are returning to the coast of Brazil. Last year, nearly 11,500 humpback whales were counted off the coast of Brazil - a new record, the Baleia Jubarte Institute cheered on Sunday in a report.

• Monday, September 3rd 2012 - 06:29 UTC

  Poll votes for “Brazuca” as the official name for the 2014 World Cup ball

  

  FIFA says Brazilians have decided to name the 2014 World Cup ball ''Brazuca,'' an informal word often used to describe national pride in the country and how Brazilians are referred to in several neighboring countries.

• Saturday, September 1st 2012 - 04:20 UTC

  Brazil breaks ground: grants civil union to a trio under a “polyfidelitous” relationship

  

  Brazilian public notary Claudia do Nascimento Domingues set off a firestorm by granting Brazil's first civil union to a trio, an act so unprecedented that there isn't a word for it in Portuguese.

• Saturday, September 1st 2012 - 04:05 UTC

  Brazilian economy commodities dependency en route to its worst year since 2009

  

  The Brazilian economy expanded 0.4% in the second quarter of the year over the previous three months, and 0.5% over the same period a year ago, according to the latest release from the country’s official Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute, IBGE.