Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague praised Brazil's growing economic and political power as he opened two days of talks with the country's leaders, and also assured that British policy on the Falkland Islands will not change despite pressure from Argentina.
Foreign Secretary William Hague begins Wednesday a two-day visit to Brazil which according to Brazilian sources will mark the beginning of a strategic dialogue between the two countries.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica and former leader Lula da Silva, under treatment for larynx cancer, said in Sao Paulo on Tuesday that they would like to have a group of Latin American intellectuals involved in the discussion and promotion of regional integration as a doctrine.
Brazil is considering injecting more funds to the National Development bank, BNDES for the fifth year running in anticipation of a possible shortage of long term credit in the economy, said Arno Augustin, Secretary of the Treasury.
Brazil’s economy grew at its fastest pace in 19 months in November, reversing a three-month contraction, as a recovery in consumer spending helped Latin America’s largest economy shrug off a global slowdown. Yields on interest rate futures rose.
Brazil had been demanding too much in negotiating the conditions for hosting the 2014 World Cup but a legal dispute should be settled within days, FIFA said on Monday.
This week William Hague becomes the first Foreign Secretary in six years to travel to Brazil. Hague was scheduled to visit Brazil last year, but was prevented by the swiftly-moving events of the Arab Spring and in that time Brazil overtook Britain to become the sixth largest economy in the world.
The size of an annual start-of-year spending freeze that the Brazilian government is set to announce by early February will offer hints on how far President Dilma Rousseff and her economic advisers want to cut interest rates.
Brazil's government is ready to respond to Argentine trade restrictions introduced this week but will evaluate the impact of the measures before making any retaliatory moves, trade officials said Friday.
Orange-juice futures rebounded from the biggest two-day slump since 2008 on renewed concern that a US government probe of imports from Brazil will tighten supplies. The Food and Drug Administration said it will detain all imports that contain carbendazim, a fungicide that isn’t approved for oranges in the US.