Standard & Poor's has stripped Brazil of its investment-grade credit rating, further hampering President Dilma Rousseff's efforts to regain market trust and pull Latin America's largest economy out of recession.
Brazilian Independence Day celebrations were marked Monday by the extra security surrounding President Dilma Rousseff during the ceremonies in Brasilia. Rousseff, in the official Rolls Royce with the top down and wearing the presidential ribbon, led the military parade for 2 kilometers before taking part in the program of events prepared by the armed forces.
Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer said it would be difficult for head of state Dilma Rousseff to last until the scheduled end of her second presidential term in 2018 without a rise in her approval rating, which currently stands at just 8%, the local press reported Friday.
President Dilma Rousseff vowed on Wednesday to take new measures to reduce the deficit her administration is projecting for 2016, without ruling out more spending cuts and additional taxes in Brazil. The 2016 budget unveiled on Monday projected Brazil’s first-ever primary fiscal deficit, before payment of interest on the national debt, sparking controversy.
Brazil's government presented a 2016 budget Monday that for the first time projects the world's seventh largest economy operating in the red, sparking worries that the country's investment grade rating will be put at risk.
President Dilma Rousseff has dropped the idea of reinstating a tax on financial transactions to bridge a gaping fiscal deficit in Brazil after it ran into a barrage of criticism even from within her coalition, Brazilian media reported on Sunday.
Brazil's economy shrank 1.9% in the second quarter, sinking into a recession that has hammered President Dilma Rousseff's popularity. The quarterly contraction, reported by government statistics agency IBGE on Friday, was bigger than what markets expected and confirms the worst slowdown for Brazil in nearly three decades.
The Brazilian government is considering reviving a financial transaction tax known as CPMF in a bid to shore up its finances in 2016, but the initiative apparently does not have sufficient support in Congress and President Dilma Rousseff's main coalition ally, PMDB, is not willing to make the presentation.
Former two-term President Lula da Silva acknowledged Friday that he is weighing the possibility of seeking to return to Brazil's highest office in the 2018 elections. ”I can't say that I am or that I'm not (a candidate),” Lula said during an interview with Radio Itatiaia.
Brazil's highest accounting court gave another 15 days for President Dilma Rousseff to respond to accusations she doctored the government accounts last year to hide the deterioration of the country's finances.