Retail sales volumes in Brazil posted in November their biggest drop in five months, government statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, affected by higher fuel prices and a weak Black Friday performance last year, Reuters reported. Brazil's retail sales fell 0.6% in November from October, IBGE reported, a deeper drop than the 0.3% one expected by economists polled by Reuters and the first negative reading since July.

Brazil's inflation ended 2022 with a sharp slowdown from double-digit peaks seen throughout the year on the back of fiscal measures and an aggressive monetary policy tightening, but once again missed the government's official target, Reuters reported. The benchmark IPCA consumer price index rose 5.79% last year, statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday. The result missed both the central bank's annual target of 3.5% and the top 5% of its tolerance band, marking the second straight year that it had done so.

Thousands of protesters supporting Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court in the capital Brasília Sunday, many calling for military intervention to remove Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftist leader who took office last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.

U.S. managed services and cloud connectivity provider GTT, formerly called Global Telecom and Technology, has emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases after more than two years of corporate and financial restructuring, BNAmericas.com reported. The company, which maintains ethernet and IP sites in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City, first filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2021. "Over the past two years, we have concentrated relentlessly on transforming our business into a customer-focused, managed services provider with a culture of continuous improvement.

Shares in Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA soared on Thursday after it revealed it was exiting bankruptcy protection, marking the closure of a restructuring process that lasted more than six years, Reuters reported. Oi filed in June 2016 for Brazil's then-biggest ever bankruptcy protection after running out of time to reorganize operations and restructure a multibillion-dollar debt amid a harsh recession in Latin America's largest economy.

Brazil's incoming finance minister Fernando Haddad on Wednesday said fiscal expansion would not help the economy at the moment, downplaying market jitters on an expected spending boost starting next year, Reuters reported. "There are situations that demand countercyclical actions ... but we are not at a moment when fiscal expansion will help the economy," he said in an interview with TV channel GloboNews.

Brazil's central bank aims to launch its digital currency in 2024 after a closed pilot program next year with financial institutions, bank president Roberto Campos Neto said on Tuesday, adding that the project had received international attention, Reuters reported. Campos Neto said that the design of the central bank's digital currency would encourage banks to tokenize their assets, with considerable efficiency gains.

Industrial production in Brazil rose 0.3% in October from September, government statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, returning to positive territory after two consecutive monthly declines though still below pre-pandemic levels, Reuters reported. Production in October also grew 1.7% from a year earlier, slightly above market consensus of a 1.6% rise.

Brazil's economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter as higher interest rates affected household spending, underscoring challenges facing President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product rose 0.4% in the three months to September, government statistics agency IBGE said on Thursday, below the 0.7% growth forecast by economists polled by Reuters. Brazil's central bank have raised borrowing costs to a nearly six-year high to battle double-digit inflation this year, which has begun to weigh on domestic demand.

A broad measure of Brazilian consumer and business credit default ratios rose in October to its highest level in almost four years, central bank data showed on Monday, amid high borrowing costs and aggressive monetary tightening, Reuters reported. The default ratio in non-earmarked loans increased to 4.2% from 4.1% in September, the highest since August 2018's 4.22%. At the same time, bank lending spreads were up to 30.3% from 28.6% the month before.