Brazil

• Thursday, June 30th 2011 - 21:07 UTC

  French food giants battle over Brazil’s number one retailer

  

  Two French food giants are locked in a battle to take over Brazil's number one retailer, Grupo Pao de Acucar. Proposals to merge Pao de Acucar with the local operations of Carrefour are opposed by rival Casino, which already has a stake in the Brazilian group.

• Thursday, June 30th 2011 - 06:53 UTC

  Trade problems between Brazil and Argentina ‘persist’, but can be managed

  

  Trade problems between Mercosur two main partners ‘subsist’, but both sides are optimistic that they can be solved. The revelation in the framework of the Mercosur summit follows weeks of discussions and paralyzing trade, sometimes for weeks at the borders.

• Wednesday, June 29th 2011 - 03:53 UTC

  Mercosur ‘structural convergence fund’ has distributed 1.1bn USD in 37 projects

  

  Mercosur structural convergence fund, Focem, which was created in 2005, has distributed 1.1 billion US dollars among its full members for the implementation of 37 projects basically to improve roads for inter-region and international trade, according to official figures released in Asunción.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 18:08 UTC

  Brazilian boom full of ambition and consumers, but also has a downside

  

  House prices in some parts of Rio are up nearly 80% in the past year,” says Ronaldo Coelho Netto, an estate agent in Rio de Janeiro, looking up at a new development near the city centre.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 16:26 UTC

  Japan interested in closer links with Mercosur attends summit in Paraguay

  

  Japan is attending the Mercosur summit in Paraguay with an eye on proposing the launch of a dialogue to boost bilateral economic relations and explore the possibility of signing a free trade agreement, reports the Japanese news agency Kyodo.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:37 UTC

  Brazil strikes natural gas onshore in the northeast of the country

  

  Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras discovered natural gas in an onshore field near an area where Brazil plans to auction exploration licenses later this year.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:34 UTC

  South Brazil freezing: temperatures below zero force closure of schools

  

  Several cities in the south of Brazil recorded on Monday temperatures below zero Centigrade which caused the death of a man and forced the closure of schools, according to official reports.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:22 UTC

  Brazil Supreme judge contrary to full disclosure of past governments’ records

  

  Brazil highest magistrate, president of the Federal Tribunal (Supreme Court) Cezar Peluso said he was contrary to the disclosure of records from the recent military dictatorship (1964/1985) as was proposed by President Dilma Rousseff.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:12 UTC

  Mercosur summit begins Tuesday among controversy over its effectiveness

  

  The Mercosur summit will be an opportunity to solve asymmetry problems and social inequalities in the region, said Paraguay’ Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Lara Castro. The South American customs union is meeting this week in Asuncion for the first of two annual summits when the rotating chair will be passed on to Uruguay.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 04:28 UTC

  Almost 40 million Brazilians climbed to middle class in the last eight years

  

  An estimated 39.5 million Brazilians climbed to the middle class between 2003 and May 2011 according to a report from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, FGV, released Monday and which underlined inclusion and inequality reduction as the main forces.