
The Brazilian government confirmed Wednesday that the fund to promote home farming and gardening will have at its disposal 7.6 billion US dollars. This represents a 525% increase since the administration of President Lula da Silva took office in 2003.

The world's newest economic grouping, BRIC is to hold its first summit in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg beginning Tuesday. BRIC is named after its four member states - emerging giants Brazil, Russia, India and China; they account for 13% of global GDP and 40% of world population.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva urged unions and workers on Monday to take advantage of the global financial crisis to help forge a new world economic order. He also criticized multilateral organizations for having no plans to address the current global crisis.

President Lula da Silva said that Brazil is overcoming the current global crisis and is in a position to teach other countries how to address the adverse economic situation.

“G 8 is over as a political decision group” since “it represents nothing at all” and it’s not a valid instrument to address the reform of the global financial system, said Brazil’s Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim during a seminar in Paris on Mercosur.

The Brazilian Central Bank slashed its Selic benchmark interest rate to a record low of 9.25% seeking to bolster spending and reverse recession in Latinamerica's largest economy. The one percentage point cut was the fourth reduction in as many months as policymakers struggle with the impact of the global economic slowdown.

Brazil will buy 10 billion US dollars of bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund to help the multilateral lender provide financing to countries hurt by the financial crisis, announced Finance Minister Guido Mantega.

Brazil's economy is showing clear signs of economic recovery though it requires additional fiscal and monetary stimulus to ensure growth this year, said on Tuesday Finance Minister Guido Mantega reacting to the latest data which showed the country had fallen into technical recession.

Air France has said it is accelerating replacement of speed monitors on Airbus planes following the disappearance of a jet over the Atlantic six days ago.

Brazilian search crews on Saturday retrieved the first bodies from the crashed Air France flight 447 in the Atlantic, and investigators said faulty speed readings had been found on the same type of jets.