Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry has asked the federal government for a capital injection into Eletronuclear to prevent the company's imminent insolvency, adding to the long-running financial strain of the unfinished Angra 3 nuclear plant in Rio de Janeiro. In a letter dated Monday and seen by Reuters, Minister Alexandre Silveira told the Finance, Planning and Management ministries that planned investments to maintain Angra 3 equipment and facilities were entirely cut from the 2026 budget.
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Outstanding bank lending in Brazil continued to lose momentum in August, central bank data showed on Monday, as high interest rates helped cool activity in Latin America's largest economy, Reuters reported. Credit growth over the past 12 months slowed to 10.1% in August, down from 10.8% in July. The central bank projected last Thursday that annual loan growth would ease further, ending the year at 8.8%.
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Airline group Abra has decided to terminate talks on a potential merger between Brazilian carrier Gol, which it controls, and rival Azul , a securities filing showed late on Thursday, Reuters reported. The move ends prospects for the creation of a dominant airline in Latin America's largest economy, which would have held roughly 60% of the domestic market, surpassing the local unit of Chile-based LATAM Airlines.
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Brazil's central bank projected on Thursday that inflation will hover near the official goal in the first quarter of 2028, but still fail to meet it, according to the bank's latest quarterly monetary policy report, Reuters reported. After projecting earlier this month annual inflation at 3.4% for the first quarter of 2027, the relevant horizon for policy decisions, policymakers unveiled a 3.1% forecast for the first quarter of 2028, the final period covered by the report. The bank targets inflation at 3%, with a tolerance band of 1.5 percentage points in either direction.
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Brazil's central bank said on Tuesday that it has entered a "new stage" in which policymakers opt to keep interest rates unchanged while evaluating whether the current level is enough to ensure inflation converges to its 3% target, Reuters reported. In the minutes from its latest meeting, where it held the benchmark Selic rate at a near two-decade high of 15% for the second consecutive time, the bank said that policymakers would not hesitate to resume a hiking cycle if deemed appropriate.
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Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Tuesday he expects interest rate cuts to begin in the coming months, citing a more favorable foreign exchange outlook in Latin America's largest economy, Reuters reported. "I believe there will be room for rate cuts ... in the coming months," Haddad told an event hosted by J. Safra Bank. He noted that at the start of the year he said he would not pay more than 5.70 reais per dollar, while the exchange rate now stands near 5.30. Although that level hurts government tax collection, he stressed it also brings "good news".
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As neighbouring countries like Paraguay and Venezuela deal with the impact of illegal crypto mining, a man has been arrested in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on charges of siphoning off-grid electricity to mine cryptocurrencies, Decrypt.com reported. The incident occurred in the Freguesia area, on Governador Island, an island in the north of the state. According to communications from local police, officers found several high-performance machines used for digital mining and that the house had electricity but no meter, indicating illegal theft.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Friday a 12 billion reais ($2.21 billion) debt renegotiation package aimed at supporting up to 100,000 agricultural producers, primarily small and medium-sized farmers affected by recent climate events, Reuters reported. The measure comes as Brazil's largest state-run bank, Banco do Brasil faces record default levels in its agribusiness portfolio, threatening the stability of the country's crucial agricultural sector.
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Brazil's economy lost momentum in the second quarter but still outperformed market expectations, driven by resilient services activity and gains in the extractive industry, official data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product in Latin America's largest economy grew 0.4% in the April-to-June period from the previous quarter, statistics agency IBGE said. That reading marked a steep slowdown from the revised 1.3% growth reported for the first quarter, when seasonal farm output boosted performance in the agricultural powerhouse.
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Brazil's central bank is not competing with financial or payment institutions through its operation and regulation of the widely used instant payments system Pix, said Renato Gomes, the institution's financial system organization director, Reuters reported. In remarks released by the central bank on Wednesday, Gomes said the institution "plays the role of a neutral agent, providing a public digital infrastructure that allows the market to develop more efficiently, inclusively and competitively." Pix is among the Brazilian trade practices under formal investigation by U.S.
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