Category: Brazil

Brazilian lawmakers overrode President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s veto on a 15 percent wage increase for congressional workers. The wage increase will cost the government $245 million a year, according to the Budget Ministry. The vote marks the fist time Brazilian legislators have overridden a presidential veto since 1998.

Brazil had a fourth-straight month of deflation in August as a rising currency cut the cost of foods and other imported goods, an index of consumer, wholesale and construction prices showed. Rio de Janeiro-based Getulio Vargas Foundation’s IGP-M index fell 0.65 percent in the month ended August 20, its biggest decline since a 1 percent drop in June 2003. The deflation, which is most evident in wholesale prices, suggests the central bank succeeded in reining in prices by raising interest rates nine times between September 2004 and May. Prices fell 0.34 percent in July, 0.44 percent in June and 0.22 percent in May.

Royal Dutch/Shell will invest $200 million in Brazil in 2006, said Shell’s president in Brazil Vasco Dias. Dias said Shell’s investments in the country are likely to increase in the next few years as the company launches production in a new field in the Campos basin. The BC-10 block, as the field is called, is estimated to hold between 200 and 300 million barrels of heavy crude.

Brazil had a fourth-straight month of deflation in August as a rising currency cut the cost of foods and other imported goods, an index of consumer, wholesale and construction prices showed. Rio de Janeiro-based Getulio Vargas Foundation’s IGP-M index fell 0.65 percent in the month ended August 20, its biggest decline since a 1 percent drop in June 2003. The deflation, which is most evident in wholesale prices, suggests the central bank succeeded in reining in prices by raising interest rates nine times between September 2004 and May. Prices fell 0.34 percent in July, 0.44 percent in June and 0.22 percent in May.

Royal Dutch/Shell will invest $200 million in Brazil in 2006, said Shell’s president in Brazil Vasco Dias. Dias said Shell’s investments in the country are likely to increase in the next few years as the company launches production in a new field in the Campos basin. The BC-10 block, as the field is called, is estimated to hold between 200 and 300 million barrels of heavy crude.

to join discussions at Brazil – The Way Forward, The 3rd Brazil Investment Forum in Rio de Janeiro, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2005. Apply for your invitation today at www.latinfinance.com/brazil

Rogerio Buratti, an ex-aide to Brazilian Finance Minister Antonio Palocci, told a congressional committee he based statements that his former boss took bribes solely on information from a friend, Ralf Barquette, who has since died. Buratti told prosecutors last week that Palocci received about $20,000 a month in bribes from a city trash collector when he was mayor of Ribeirao Preto.

to join discussions at Brazil – The Way Forward, The 3rd Brazil Investment Forum in Rio de Janeiro, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2005. Apply for your invitation today at www.latinfinance.com/brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva proposed increasing fines for money laundering to $816,000 in response to a congressional probe into allegations that his own Workers’ Party used funds paid to a state contractor to finance campaigns and bribe lawmakers. Lula also proposed requiring financial institutions to be informed a day ahead of any planned transfers and withdrawals that surpass limits to be set by the central bank. The Workers´ Party has denied any wrongdoing by its board and says it is looking into fundraising decisions by some members.