Brazil's central bank is aiming for inflation in 2023 "around" the 3.25% target but less than 4%, its chief, Roberto Campos Neto, said on Thursday, as policymakers hike interest rates to cool surging consumer prices in Latin America's largest economy, Reuters reported. When it raised its key interest rate to 13.25% last week and penciled in another hike for August, the central bank said it was looking to ensure inflation next year converged "around the target" rather than "to its target." "Around is less than 4%, just to make that very clear," Campos Neto said in an online news conference.

Brazil's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday approved the sale of state-run oil firm Petrobras' 51% stake in gas company Gaspetro with no restrictions, Reuters reported. Petrobras is selling the stake to Compass, which is controlled by energy company Cosan, for 2.03 billion reais ($394.15 million), according to a statement from Compass when the deal was announced last July. Japan's Mitsui & Co. owns the remaining 49% stake in Gaspetro, a holding company which controls 18 distributors of piped natural gas. The watchdog's Wednesday decision came on a 4-3 vote.

Brazil’s central bank said an extension of its aggressive tightening cycle with another interest rate hike in August is needed to assure that high inflation forecasts will fall back around their target, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers discussed signaling a steady interest rate for a “sufficiently long” period but concluded another hike would still be needed, according to the minutes of their June 14-15 meeting, when the board raised borrowing costs to 13.25%.

Miners Vale SA and BHP Group said in a joint statement on Monday they are not interested in selling their joint venture Samarco, after reports of the interest of Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), Reuters reported. "BHP Brasil and Vale say Samarco is not for sale and reaffirm its support for the restructuring plan filed by the employees' unions," the companies said in a joint statement. The statement added the companies are "focused on the mediation hearing in the bankruptcy process" scheduled for Tuesday.

Brazil posted a higher-than-expected $4.9 billion trade surplus in May, official data showed on Monday, boosting exports to the European Union amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. The result represented a sharp decline from the $8.5 billion surplus posted in May 2021, on the back of a surge in imports while exports grew at a slower pace. Exports were up 8% from the same month last year to $29.6 billion, a record for any month, the Economy Ministry said.

Brazil's consolidated public sector posted a primary budget surplus of 38.88 billion reais ($8.18 billion) in April, the best result since the central bank series started in 2002, figures showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In the 12 months to April, the primary surplus as a percentage of GDP reached 1.52%, up from 1.37% in the previous month. The figure was boosted by gains reported in tax collection, helped by the upturn in economic activity and a jump in fuel prices.

Brazilian consumer prices rose more than expected in the month to mid-May, statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday, marking the sharpest jump for the period in six years as the country grapples with galloping inflation, Reuters reported. The IPCA-15 consumer price index rose 0.59% in the month, according to IBGE. That was down from 1.73% in the previous month as the central bank has raised interest rates aggressively, but still above expectations of a 0.45% rise, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll. Inflation in the 12 months to mid-May hit 12.20%, up from 12.03% in mid-April.

Brazil's Economy Ministry on Friday said it needs to freeze 10 billion reais ($2.1 billion) in expenditures to comply with the spending cap rule, which limits spending growth to the previous year's inflation, Reuters reported. The limitation highlights President Jair Bolsonaro's difficulties to approve new expenses that are not yet included in the budget while seeking reelection in October.

Brazil's government debt as a share of gross domestic product fell to 78.5% in March, the lowest level in almost two years, with improved revenues in states and municipalities leading to a new primary surplus for the month, Reuters reported. That compares with a gross debt of 79.2% of GDP in February, to the best result since April 2020 (78.4%), when the country was beginning to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Booming revenue, helped by a surge in commodities, has lifted the government's budget, while expenditures have not grown at the same pace due to a constitutional spending cap.

Services activity in Brazil rose more than expected in March and at a record pace for the month, official figures showed on Thursday, marking a strong recovery from the severe downturn caused by the COVID pandemic, Reuters reported. Services activity increased 1.7% in March from February, more than double the 0.7% growth expected by economists according to a Reuters poll, reaching its highest level since May 2015, the government statistics agency IBGE reported. That put the sector 7.2% above the level of February 2020, before the onset of the pandemic.