Figures in Brazil show that 2.52 million new jobs were created last year, the Brazilian Labour Ministry reported.
Brazil’s trade surplus fell 19.8% in 2010 to 20.28 billion USD, the smallest in eight years. Exports grew 31.4% to 201.9 billion, a new record, but imports surged 41.6% to 181.64 billion, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce said this week.
Brazilian state-controlled energy giant Petrobras on Wednesday confirmed the commercial viability of two massive offshore oil and gas fields located deep beneath the ocean floor, announcing that one of them will now be known as “Lula.”
Relations between the United States and Latin America have not changed in any meaningful way under President Barack Obama, Brazilian head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.
On the same day that work began on a new Palestinian embassy in Brasilia, Brazilian president Lula da Silva said that peace in the Middle East was impossible with the United States as a mediator, reported the Palestine News Network.
Brazil's outgoing President Lula da Silva said he might run for president again some day, Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported, a revelation that could weaken his chosen successor.
Brazilian president Lula de Silva strongly defended Mercosur calling for a quick approval of Venezuela’s incorporation as full member, and proposed other associate members such Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile should follow the same path since ‘we share the same political, economic and cultural affinities’.
At least fourteen presidents, including Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuela’ Hugo Chavez, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have confirmed they will be present next January first in Brasilia when Dilma Rousseff takes office as Brazil’s first woman president.
The Paraguayan Industrial Union, UIP, called Brazilian president Lula da Silva an “arrogant hypocrite” for making promises he never honoured, and attacked President Fernando Lugo for generating ‘overblown fantasy expectations’.
Mercosur could end up with a High Representative post following this coming presidential summit in Foz de Iguazu. According to Brazilian sources the initiative has been discussed with partners Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and should be approved next Thursday/Friday.