Brazil

• Monday, August 8th 2011 - 04:54 UTC

  Brazilian military warn incoming Defence minister forces are ‘non political, non partisan’

  

  A Brazilian retired general and former commander of UN forces in Haiti warned the new Defence minister Celso Amorim to avoid giving the Armed Forces command a ‘left-wing ideological imprint’.

• Monday, August 8th 2011 - 04:37 UTC

  Brazilean President Rousseff looses another top official to corruption

  

  The Brazilian congressional opposition promised to block legislative work in both Houses until the government accepts the creation of a Special Investigation Commission, CPI, to look into alleged corruption practices in several ministries from the administration of President Dilma Rousseff.

• Monday, August 8th 2011 - 04:33 UTC

  Brazil remains faithful to the dollar and has no plans to sell US Treasuries

  

  Brazil has no plans to sell US Treasuries or change its foreign currency reserves holdings as a result of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US’s credit rating, a government official said.

• Saturday, August 6th 2011 - 08:41 UTC

  Canadian PM will visit Brazil, Colombia and Central America

  

  Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Honduras from August 8 to 12 to promote trade and investments, reinforce democratic governance and advance common security, according to a release from the PM’s office.

• Saturday, August 6th 2011 - 08:29 UTC

  Soft loans for Brazilian suppliers of the oil and gas industry

  

  Brazil’s state-owned BNDES development bank said it planned to provide about 2.55 billion dollars in financing over the next four years to suppliers to the country’s oil and gas industry.

• Saturday, August 6th 2011 - 08:26 UTC

  Germany’s BMW planning assembly plant in Brazil to cater Mercosur luxury car demand

  

  German automaker BMW said this week it would probably build its first assembly plant in Brazil after strong demand for luxury cars generated stellar earnings for the global leader.

• Friday, August 5th 2011 - 19:55 UTC

  Lula da Silva comes out in strong support Celso Amorim as defence minister

  

  Brazilian former president Lula da Silva came out in full support of the latest cabinet reshuffle by President Dilma Rousseff who sacked the Minister of Defence Nelson Jobim following some derogatory remarks about the cabinet chief and the head of institutional relations (mainly with Congress).

• Friday, August 5th 2011 - 07:54 UTC

  Celso Amorim Brazil’s new Defence minister; Jobim out on derogatory remarks

  

  Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim resigned after criticizing recent government names to reporters and will be replaced by ex-foreign minister Celso Amorim, the president's office said Thursday.

• Thursday, August 4th 2011 - 06:39 UTC

  Brazil to request additional exceptions from Mercosur common external tariff

  

  Brazil will request at least 100 additional exceptions from Mercosur common external tariff, TEC, as part of the program to prop local industry that was announced earlier this week and includes tax relief to the tune of 16 billion dollars.

• Thursday, August 4th 2011 - 06:36 UTC

  July marked the second largest net inflow, in record, of dollars into Brazil: 15.8bn

  

  Brazil registered its second-largest volume of net monthly foreign-exchange inflows on record in July. Net dollar inflows in the month reached 15.83 billion, compared with 2.56 billion in net outflows in June and only 713 million in net inflows in July last year.