Azul SA is rushing to raise cash as part of a deal it reached last week with its aircraft lessors, a key step in the Brazilian carrier’s attempt to again rework its debt, Bloomberg News reported. The company was able to strike an agreement with lessors and parts suppliers that reduces its debt by 3 billion reais ($540 million) in exchange for 100 million new preferred shares. The announcement sent shares rallying as much as 22%. But the boost proved short-lived.

Brazil's central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto said on Tuesday that stablecoins and asset tokenization should be regulated in the country next year, as he delivered remarks in a video recorded for market intelligence firm Uqbar, Reuters reported. Stablecoins are pegged to real-world assets, such as the U.S. dollar, and therefore fluctuate much less than other crypto assets like bitcoin.

Azul’s shares jumped 16% in Sao Paulo trading after the Brazilian air carrier reached an agreement with its lessors and parts suppliers that helps cut its debt load, Bloomberg News reported. The deal allows the airline to slash 3 billion reais ($547 million) of debt in exchange for 100 million new preferred shares, according to a regulatory filing. “This agreement with lessors should ease the negotiations with other creditors,” Bradesco BBI analyst Victor Mizusaki writes in a note.

Brazil’s annual inflation sped up roughly in line with estimates in September as a historic drought pressured electricity and food prices in Latin America’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Wednesday showed prices rose 4.42% from a year earlier, just below the 4.44% median estimate of economists surveyed Bloomberg. On the month, they increased 0.44%. Policymakers are raising interest rates as price pressures build and investors grow uneasy about the stewardship of Brazil’s economy.

Root Capital, a Rio de Janeiro-based firm specializing in credit, is launching a distressed-debt fund as filings for bankruptcy protection reach record highs in Brazil, Bloomberg News reported. “We continue to see stress in Brazil’s credit markets, the companies continue to go broke, the agribusiness sector is horrible, and the interest rates that people thought would start to fall now are going up again,” said Rafael Fritsch, partner and chief investment officer at Root Capital.

Executives in Latin America’s largest economy are redrawing plans, reprofiling debt and holding back investment as interest rates climb and the currency remains under pressure, Bloomberg News reported. While companies the world over have been contending with higher borrowing costs, Brazilian firms have had an especially tough burden, hit with some of the steepest rates in the world after surviving the pandemic with little government aid. Now rates are going up again after a respite of just over a year.

Brazil’s annual inflation slowed much more than expected in early September despite a hike to utility bills, giving some respite to the central bank as it raises borrowing costs to tame prices, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Wednesday showed prices rose 4.12% from a year earlier, below all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists that had a 4.29% median estimate. On the month, they increased 0.13%.

Brazil’s central bank said all board members supported a gradual start to their cycle of interest rate hikes, falling short of explicitly backing faster increases seen by financial markets going forward, Bloomberg News reported. “All members agreed to start the monetary policy tightening cycle gradually,” central bankers wrote in minutes to their Sept. 17-18 rate meeting, when they raised the benchmark Selic for the first time since 2022, to 10.75%.

Soccer-mad Brazilians have fallen hard for online sports betting, yielding a boom of interest from foreign gambling companies that may boost state coffers but also threatens to divert funds from consumer spending in other areas, Reuters reported. Latin America's largest economy has seen lower-than-expected growth in consumer spending in the country in recent months, a weakness some banks and think tanks are blaming on gambling. Such a linkage would echo data seen in some U.S. states touched by online gambling fever.

AgroGalaxy’s financial struggles reached a critical point and the company, a major player in Brazil’s agricultural input retail sector, filed for judicial recovery on Sept. 18, the Rio Times reported. The decision to file for judicial recovery came after months of financial turmoil. AgroGalaxy’s board of directors approved the filing, which was submitted to the court under confidential terms. Earlier in the day prior to the filing, a series of high-profile resignations rocked the company’s leadership structure.