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Just when Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff had started making progress in getting her political alliance to fall in line behindspending cuts, she faces fresh headwinds. Pending testimony by the heads of Brazil’s largest construction companies on graft at state-run oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA threatens to drag the ruling Workers’ Party deeper into Brazil’s largest... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s real rose for the first time in three days on speculation the nation’s higher interest rates will attract foreign investors even as Latin America’s largest economy shrinks. Read More
The deficit in the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, narrowed in May to $3.4 billion from $6.9 billion a month earlier, the central bank said in a report distributed today in Brasilia. The gap was smaller than estimated by all 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median forecast was... Continue Reading →
BP Plc’s rating outlook was downgraded by Fitch Ratings because it expects lower crude prices and fines related to the Macondo oil spill to cut cash flows and drive up debt. Read More
Brazil economists raised their 2015 inflation forecast, dimmed their outlook for economic activity and boosted their estimate for the benchmark rate this year after three sets of worse-than-expected data came out June 19 and construction executives were arrested. Read More
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s approval rating dropped to the lowest level of any leader since the impeachment of former president Fernando Collor de Mello in 1992, amid corruption scandals and a slowing economy. Read More
In arresting Marcelo Odebrecht, Brazilian federal prosecutors have netted themselves a whale. Odebrecht’s journey from heir and leader of one of Brazil’s largest family business empires and most influential companies to a jail cell in Curitiba is an economy-shaking development in the unfolding Petrobras bribery scandal that suddenly shows no signs of abating. Read More
The arrest of 46-year-old Odebrecht, who has personal ties to former President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, could bring the scandal closer to the political heart of the ruling Worker's Party, already weakened by Brazil's largest ever corruption investigation known as "Operation Car Wash."
The real fell the most among major currencies as Brazil braced for its worst recession in 25 years after the central bank reported that the economy contracted more than forecast in April. Read More
Economic activity in Brazil fell sharply in April from March, worse than already negative market estimates and showing still more evidence the once-booming economy is heading toward a recession. The Brazilian central bank's IBC-Br economic activity index , a gauge of farming, industry and services activity, fell 0.84 percent, more than double market expectations for... Continue Reading →
