State prosecutors in the state of Minas Gerais have filed a lawsuit seeking 2.5 billion reais ($457 million) from miners Vale, Samarco and BHP related to a tailings dam disaster in 2015, according to a statement on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Prosecutors allege that the companies have not fulfilled the obligations outlined in a settlement agreed in 2018, in which the miners agreed to pay damages to the people affected by the disaster. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Brazil’s annual inflation has probably peaked in September and is now going to slow to policy makers’ 8.5% estimate by end-2021, according to central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto, Bloomberg News reported. “I think the high is going to be in September,” Campos Neto said at an event organized by Morgan Stanley on Friday, adding that prices tend to “accommodate” going forward. Brazil’s annual inflation surpassed 10% in mid-September for the first time since 2016 as fuel and food prices jumped. Brazil will publish September’s inflation data on Oct.
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German industrial inspector TÜV Süd was on Tuesday accused of evading its responsibilities over its alleged role in the 2019 deadly collapse of a dam in Brazil, as Brazilian claimants kicked off the first civil lawsuit in Germany over the disaster, Reuters reported. The municipality of Brumadinho and the family of an engineer killed in the accident allege the company negligently certified the Brumadinho dam in southeastern Brazil, although it did not meet international safety standards.
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Unable to sell such assets as its retail outlets and its online domain, Brazil’s Sarava Libraries suffered a new setback in its judicial recovery plan and risks declaring bankruptcy, Lodi Valley News reported. After an action by one of its creditors, technology company Infosys, which questioned the retailer’s plan filed in March, the court has now decided that Sarava will file a new proposal within 30 days, under pain of filing for bankruptcy. However, a few days before this decision the company had already made an adjustment to the plan and is contemplating the failure to sell the assets.
Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes on Friday outlined a rosier outlook for Latin America's largest economy in 2022, predicting a "robust" GDP growth and inflation meeting its target, Reuters reported. "I have a constructive and positive view that we're going to post a robust growth next year," he said. Market participants see GDP growth at mere 1.93%, according to a central bank survey released last week. In an event hosted by Credit Suisse, Guedes said inflation is likely to be at 5% next year, the upper part of a range.
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Brazil Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Monday he agrees with the solution proposed by the president of the Supreme Court, Luiz Fux, for payment of court-awarded debt owed by the government, Reuters reported. The Supreme Court proposed last week that instead of paying the debt in installments, the government make sure the volume of payments does not exceed the budget spending ceiling. The proposal would reduce by around 50 billion reais ($9.6 billion) the total amount the government would have to pay next year.
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A majority of Brazil’s Supreme Court justices have voted to uphold the constitutionality of a law granting the central bank formal autonomy, a key piece of legislation considered by investors as a victory for monetary policy making in Latin America’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Eight justices voted in support of the law on Thursday, and two against.
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Brazil's Supreme Court will debate on Wednesday whether a law to establish the autonomy of the central bank, insulating it from political interference, is constitutional or not, Reuters reported. The law does not change the way the bank sets interest rates but distances it from politics by setting fixed four-year terms for its governor and directors that will no longer coincide with the presidential election cycle. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro signed the measure into law in February, but two left-wing parties have questioned whether it violates the country's constitution.
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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has begun expressing irritation at the central bank’s newfound autonomy as surging inflation presents a threat to his 2022 reelection prospects, government officials told The Associated Press. On Thursday, during a flight home from Mato Grosso state, Bolsonaro said that he regretted signing the bill into law earlier this year that granted the bank autonomy, a high-level official aboard told the AP.
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Brazilian prosecutors asked a bankruptcy court on Wednesday to compel miners Vale SA and BHP Group Ltd to fully pay offtheir Samarco joint venture's 50.7 billion reais ($9.47 billion) debt, according to a court document reviewed by Reuters. Samarco filed for bankruptcy protection in April as it struggled to restructure its debt, which it stopped servicing after a dam burst at a mine in 2015, killing 19 people, releasing a giant torrent of sludge and halting production.
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