Brazil’s real fluctuated amid speculation President Dilma Rousseff will fail to gather congressional support to approve the country’s fiscal target, which is key to avoiding a forced government spending shutdown. The government is trying to change this year’s fiscal target, allowing it to end the year with a primary deficit of 119 billion reais ($31 billion).... Continue Reading →
Fitch Warns Emerging Markets of Brazil-Like Mess on Debt
As if political turmoil, commodity-price meltdown and growth hiccups aren’t enough, emerging markets face a threat to their creditworthiness from an entirely different area -- the burgeoning debt of households and companies. Private-sector borrowing as a proportion of gross domestic product will reach 77 percent by the end of this year in seven large developing... Continue Reading →
Withering Demand Leaves Brazil GDP in ‘Obituary’ Condition
Latin America’s largest economy shrank more than analysts forecast, as rising unemployment and higher inflation sapped domestic demand, pulling the nation deeper into recession. Gross domestic product in Brazil contracted 1.7 percent in the three months ended in September, after a revised 2.1 percent drop the previous quarter, the national statistics institute said in Rio... Continue Reading →
Transocean’s Norway Deal Marks New Rig-Rate Low in Oil Slump
Transocean Ltd., the biggest offshore-rig operator, won a contract to drill four wells off Norway for Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA at a day rate of about $180,000, the lowest recorded tariff in the Nordic country since oil began to tumble last year. “It’s a clear sign of desperation and how bad it’s become,” Janne Kvernland, an... Continue Reading →
Brazil to Post Third Straight GDP Drop as Domestic Demand Wilts
Latin America’s largest economy probably shrank for a third consecutive quarter, as rising unemployment and higher inflation sapped domestic demand, pulling the nation deeper into recession. Gross domestic product contracted 1.2 percent in the three months ended in September, according to the median estimate of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That would mark the first... Continue Reading →
BTG Declines as Firm Separates From Jailed Founder Esteves
Grupo BTG Pactual SA plunged Monday after Brazilian billionaire Andre Esteves was jailed indefinitely and resigned all of his posts at the firm he helped build. The bank’s leaders spent the weekend in emergency talks to sell assets and acquire his controlling stake. Shares tumbled as much as 14 percent in Sao Paulo, extending the... Continue Reading →
Forget Esteves, It’s the Other Brazil Bust That Worries Insiders
When a world-renowned banker and a congressman were busted last week as part of the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history, the international spotlight naturally fell on the young tycoon, Andre Esteves. Yet to long-time Brazil watchers, it was the detention of the legislator -- a ruling party dealmaker named Delcidio Amaral -- that marked... Continue Reading →
UPDATE 1-Brazil’s Andrade Gutierrez to admit World Cup bribes
Brazilian builder Andrade Gutierrez will confess to paying bribes for 2014 FIFA World Cup contracts and business with state-run companies Petrobras and Eletrobras, a newspaper report said on Friday. Andrade Gutierrez agreed with Brazil's prosecutor-general and other investigators to pay a fine of 1 billion reais ($270 million) in a plea deal covering the company... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s economy tailspin seen at record speed in third quarter
Brazil's economy probably shrank at the fastest annual pace on record in the third quarter, crippled by a combination of government budget cuts, rising inflation and political gridlock, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday. Gross domestic product in Latin America's largest economy likely contracted 1.2 percent in the third quarter from the second BRGDP=ECI... Continue Reading →
Brazil Real Heads for Weekly Decline on Congress Paralysis
Brazil’s real is on course to end the week lower as the Wednesday arrest of a ruling-party senator threatens to sidetrack President Dilma Rousseff’s economic agenda. The arrest of the government’s leader in the Senate, Delcidio Amaral, has delayed voting on a new fiscal target that would allow the government to end 2015 with a... Continue Reading →
