Spain’s Elecnor group is building more wind power plants in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul totalling an estimated 300 MW. The undertaking was boosted by funding from Brazil economic and social development bank, BSDES)
Brazil’s trade surplus more than doubled in July from a year ago fuelled by higher commodity prices in spite of the over-valued Super Real that is having an impact on manufactured goods exports and promotes the import of ‘cheap’ products.
Brazil’s car production capacity is expected to jump from the current 3.6 million units per year to 6.2 million by 2025 supported by massive investments from the industry estimated in 19 billion dollars by 2017, according to estimated from the Vanzolini Foundation in Sao Paulo.
The Brazilian Real is the world's most expensive currency and is 149% overvalued against the dollar and the Colombian peso, the next most expensive currency is 108% above the US currency, according to British magazine The Economist, which has created a new version of the Big Mac index.
Brazil reiterated its intention of banning all Falklands’ flagged vessels from calling at the country’s ports and described as “illegal” the current round of oil exploration in the Islands’ waters.
Brazil is prepared for the event of a United States default if no agreement is reached in the US congress on the debt ceiling and will also implement a 30 billion dollars tax relief program to prop Brazilian industry competitiveness, announced Finance minister Guido Mantega.
South America’s top economic and monetary authorities will be meeting in Lima and later in Buenos Aires to agree on “joint and specific actions” to address the flush of global liquidity distorting regional currencies and of unsold manufactured goods threatening jobs and industry.
Argentina and Brazil reaffirmed on Friday their strategic alliance and commitment to Mercosur and regional integration during a summit in Brasilia, where President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner together with her Brazilian peer Dilma Rousseff inaugurated the new Argentine Embassy in the Brazilian capital.
Brazil has begun shipping rice to South Africa, competing with Thailand, the largest source of the grain for Africa’s largest economy. A shipment of rice from Brazil’s Santa Catarina state left Santos bound for South Africa this week.
Repsol-YPF, Spain’s largest oil company, said second-quarter earnings fell 7.3% after refining margins narrowed and output declined because of the civil war in Libya and strikes in Argentina.