Brazil

• Friday, May 9th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil's warning message about Bolivian separatism

  Brazil's Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim said that South America would never accept “separatism in Bolivia” and underlined that any autonomy must be negotiated with La Paz, reports O'Globo.

• Friday, May 9th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Sugar cane becomes Brazil's second energy source

  Sugar cane and cane-based ethanol became a more important energy source than hydroelectric power in Brazil's overall energy production last year, topped only by petroleum and oil products according to a report from the government's energy planning agency, EPE.

• Friday, May 9th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil's April annualized inflation climbs to 5.04%

  Brazilian Consumer Prices Index experienced its biggest increase in four months in April, 0.55% (up from March's 0.48%) because of higher food costs, according to the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute, IBGE.

• Wednesday, May 7th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil working on idea of a sovereign wealth fund

  Brazil's Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced in Brasilia that the government is working on creating a sovereign wealth fund of as much as 20 billion US dollars. The fund would help finance overseas investment and acquisitions by Brazilian companies.

• Thursday, May 1st 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Japan and S. Korea interested in Brazil's bullet train

  

  Japanese and South Korean corporations announced their interest in Brazil's first bullet train which is expected to be set to bid in the first quarter of next year. Brazil's cabinet chief Dilma Rousseff is currently visiting Japan where she was approached by the corporations.

• Thursday, May 1st 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  European MPs visit Brazil to address beef and bio-fuels

  

  A delegation of 12 European Members of Parliament are currently in Brazil to assess livestock and beef conditions, and the bio fuels industry. The visit is considered significant because Brazil has only just managed to resume beef exports to the EU after Brussels imposed last February a temporary ban based on sanitary rules.

• Thursday, May 1st 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Fuel prices hiked in Brazil; first time since 2005

  

  Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega this week announced a 10% hike in the price of gasoline and 15% for diesel fuel, the first such increase since 2005. The increases refer to products from Petrobras, the country's government owned oil corporation which sets the pace for the rest of the industry.

• Thursday, May 1st 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Lula da Silva praises Brazil's two sided “investment grade”

  

  Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva celebrated the country's newly acquired investment grade condition and magnet for foreign investment. “Brazil is a serious country, with serious policies, which looks after its finances seriously, and that is why we now have achieved the international trust, which Brazil was after for a long time”

• Wednesday, April 30th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Investment grade for Brazil; stock market balloons 6.3%

  Brazil's Ibovespa stock exchange index jumped to a record on Wednesday after Standard & Poor's unexpectedly raised the country's credit rating to investment grade. S&P Ratings Services Brazil's debt rating announcement from BB+ to BBB- sent domestic stocks soaring 6.3% hitting a new intraday record of 67,854.

• Tuesday, April 29th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Herculean challenge ahead for Brazilian petroleum industry

  Brazil's plan to become one of the world's biggest oil exporters hinges on exploiting crude 6 miles below the ocean surface in deposits so hot they can melt the metal used to carry uranium to nuclear plants, reports Bloomberg.