Brazil

• Monday, September 17th 2012 - 05:43 UTC

  Brazil’s ‘trial of the century’ culprits point to Lula da Silva as “the chief”

  

  Former Brazilian president Lula da Silva was “the chief” of the corruption network the ruling Workers Party had organized to have sufficient votes in Congress, according to a report published in the weekly Veja, the magazine with the largest circulation in the country.

• Monday, September 17th 2012 - 02:54 UTC

  Brazil trusts the Venezuelan electoral process will be “credible and transparent”

  

  Brazil said it is confident that the electoral process in Venezuela, where Chavez is bidding for another six years will be “credible and transparent”. Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota made the statement in an interview published on Sunday by O Estado de Sao Paulo.

• Monday, September 17th 2012 - 02:47 UTC

  Experts close to President Rousseff warn of a “real estate bubble” in Brazil

  

  A team of experts working for the administration of President Dilma Rousseff has warned of the existence of a “real estate burble” in Brazil with the value of houses soaring 165% in Rio do Janeiro and 132% in Sao Paulo in the last four years.

• Saturday, September 15th 2012 - 05:24 UTC

  Brazil economic activity picks up in July, but will end below 2% in 2012

  

  Brazil’s economic activity rose more than forecast in July, posting the biggest expansion in almost a year. The non-seasonally adjusted economic activity index rose 2.34% from a year earlier after rising 0.99% in June, the central bank said in a report.

• Saturday, September 15th 2012 - 05:19 UTC

  Two Brazilian mid-sized banks ordered liquidation by monetary authorities

  

  Brazil's central bank ordered the liquidation of Banco Cruzeiro do Sul on Friday after no one stepped up to acquire the troubled lender, raising doubts about government oversight of small and mid-sized banks.

• Friday, September 14th 2012 - 05:18 UTC

  Auction of Pluna’s Bombardier aircraft collapses: terms “non attractive” and “non viable”

  

  Uruguay’s attempt to auction the bankrupt national airline Pluna aircraft collapsed because none of the groups that showed an initial interest turned up arguing that the 136 million dollars for the seven Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen was “not attractive” and considered the whole business deal “non viable”.

• Friday, September 14th 2012 - 03:40 UTC

  Thousands across Argentina take to the streets to protest against re-re-election

  

  Appealing to social networks thousands of Argentines Thursday evening took to the streets of the country’s major cities to protest some of the latest measures from the government of President Cristina Fernandez including the re-re-election plans and the increasing restrictions to the purchase of dollars.

• Friday, September 14th 2012 - 00:51 UTC

  Brazilian extends tax breaks to two dozen industries to stimulate economy

  

  Brazil rolled out additional stimulus measures to bolster its sluggish economy on Thursday, extending tax breaks to more than two dozen industries and reducing the cost of acquiring capital goods in a bid to help struggling local businesses.

• Thursday, September 13th 2012 - 17:07 UTC

  Argentina’s official inflation for August, 0.9% and 6.8% in the eight months

  

  Argentina’s inflation advanced 0.9% in August and 6.8% in the first eight months of the year according to the controversial official stats office Indec. Whole sale prices were up 1% over July and the construction cost increased 1.3%.

• Thursday, September 13th 2012 - 17:03 UTC

  Argentina “suggests” banks should limit dollar extractions by credit card holders

  

  The Argentine central bank has informally “suggested” the banking system to limit the advances (in dollars) of credit card holders overseas, reports the Buenos Aires financial press. This is seen as another tightening of the dollar clamp imposed by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez to retain much needed foreign currency.