Brazil

Consolidation would lower the cost of capital for Latin American airlines, resulting in better services for customers, according to Azul SA Chief Executive Officer John Peter Rodgerson, Bloomberg News reported. “We’ve always been big believers in consolidation,” Rodgerson said in an interview in New York Wednesday. “The product improves for customers, and it could really strengthen a great market in Brazil that we’re seeing today.” Rodgerson declined to comment on “active” M&A processes.

Brazil’s central bank chief justified his decision to change the institution’s written guidance on interest rates during a public speech, one day after another board member said such a move should have been discussed with the whole board and communicated through more formal channels, Bloomberg News reported. Roberto Campos Neto made it clear during a speech in Washington last month that the bank may not make the additional half-point cut it had previously signaled in statements, opening the door for the smaller quarter-point reduction it delivered last week.

Brazil’s central bank said it unanimously sees more restrictive interest rates ahead as the institution tries to calm investors following a split policy decision that exposed rifts among its board members, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” central bankers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

Brazil’s central bank said more restrictive rates are needed to fulfill its commitment to hitting the inflation target, according to the minutes to its split decision on borrowing costs that rattled investors, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” policymakers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad rolled out a plan worth 50.9 billion reais ($9.9 billion) Thursday to help millions of people hit by floods in the nation’s south as investors keep a wary eye on public spending, Bloomberg News reported. The initial measures, which include subsidized credit from the federal government, will be directed to 3.5 million people including workers, social program beneficiaries and rural producers, as well as companies, states and municipalities, Haddad said.

The retail shakeout has reached Brazil, where local players are starting to restructure and consolidate amid stiff competition from foreign giants like Amazon.com Inc., MercadoLibre Inc. and Shein Group Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. Though e-commerce reshaped retailing in the US and Europe even before the pandemic, a confluence of economic, financial and logistical circumstance kept the South American nation insulated from the trend until later.

Grupo Casas Bahia SA shares jumped as much as 21% after the Brazilian retailer filed an out-of-court deal with its main creditors to reschedule the payment of 4.1 billion reais ($801 million) in debt, Bloomberg News reported. The plan was built with Banco Bradesco SA and Banco do Brasil SA, the main creditors, which hold approximately 55% of the debt in bank loans, according to Casas Bahia’s chief financial officer, Elcio Ito.

Brazil’s jobless rate ticked up less than expected last month, likely adding to central bankers’ concerns that the labor market is running too hot, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Tuesday showed the unemployment rate rose to 7.9% in March from a month earlier as nearly 8.6 million people were jobless in the period. The central bank plans to lower the benchmark interest rate by half-point next month and is keeping a close eye on hiring as it charts its subsequent moves.

Brazil’s inflation cooled more than expected in early April, but fell short of soothing policymakers’ fears about lingering price pressures on Latin America’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Friday showed prices increased 0.21% in the first two weeks of April from a month earlier, less than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey, whose median forecast was 0.29%. Annual inflation came in at 3.77%.

In a conference room of the run-down headquarters of Brazilian retailer Americanas SA, Camille Loyo Faria agrees that the office has seen better days, Bloomberg News reported. It’s “ugly, as a company in judicial recovery should be,” the chief financial officer says. The 50-year-old started at the Rio de Janeiro-based company on Feb. 1, 2023, in the wake of its bankruptcy protection measure and accounting fraud that eventually reached 25 billion reais ($4.8 billion) — one of the biggest-ever in Brazil. It’s just the latest company that Faria has helped pull out of distress.