Brazil has frozen 28 billion Reais (approx 13.7 billion dollars) in its 2013 budget as it tries to meet its primary surplus target, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Thursday in Brasilia. President Dilma Rousseff’s administration is trying to meet targeted primary surplus goal of 155.9 billion Reais without undermining economic growth.
Brazil's Deputy Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa, who helped design some of the government's flagship economic projects, has handed in his resignation for personal reasons and will leave the post in June, the ministry announced on Monday.
The Brazilian government has come to the rescue of the sugar-ethanol industry announcing that as of next May first the mandatory content of ethanol in gasoline will increase from 20% to 25%, taxes on the sugar-cane fuel will be eliminated and there will be soft loans to keep expansion going.
Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega slammed the United States and Europe for repeatedly delaying reforms of their dominated shareholding and voting power in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Brazilian government postponed until next year increases in taxes on the sale of cars and trucks in a bid to stimulate demand for manufactured goods and spur economic growth, announced the Finance Ministry.
China and Brazil signed an agreement to do billions of dollars of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers work to lessen dependence on the US dollar and Euro.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff appointed on Friday new ministers for agriculture, civil aviation and labour, the presidential office said, in a Cabinet shuffle that left her economic team intact.
Brazil’s central bank on Wednesday kept its benchmark rate at a record low 7.25% for the third straight meeting as policy makers seek to prop the anaemic economy which last year only advanced 0.9%.
The Brazilian economy grew a mere 0.9% in 2012 despite government stimulus measures, its worst performance in three years, official statistics showed Friday. But prospects for the coming years are considered encouraging given the international events to be hosted by Brazil and the electoral calendar.
Brazil’s Finance minister Guido Mantega in Moscow for the G-20 meeting, said that inflation above the government's target raises a yellow flag and that monetary policy, not the exchange rate, is the right tool to control prices.