Spanish conglomerate Abengoa, teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, has halted construction of power transmission lines in Brazil, a potential setback for the South America nation's bid to emerge from its worst energy crisis in 14 years, Reuters reported. Unions representing construction workers, a wind power industry group and Abengoa's sub-contractor on the new power lines said the Spanish company informed them of the interruption in recent days.

Some of Grupo BTG Pactual SA’s fixed-income funds have lost about half of their net assets in the week that followed the arrest of the firm’s billionaire founder, Andre Esteves. Clients pulled a net 6.7 billion reais ($1.8 billion) in the week after Esteves was jailed as part of a corruption probe in Brazil, according to the latest available data compiled by Bloomberg. That represents more than half of the combined net assets of the 10 fixed-income funds listed on the bank’s website, which totaled 12.7 billion reais the day before the arrest.

Late President Hugo Chávez won loyalty by distributing hundreds of billions of petrodollars to lift millions of Venezuelans out of poverty. The money has run out for his handpicked successor, President Nicolás Maduro, The Wall Street Journal reported. Less than three years into Mr. Maduro’s tenure, Venezuela’s economy is in shambles amid low oil prices, and poverty is more prevalent than it was when the leftist Chavismo movement took power nearly 17 years ago.

Brazil’s recession deepened in the third quarter into what economists say is the country’s worst crisis since the Great Depression, as political gridlock and a giant corruption scandal have halted investment and forced consumers to pare spending to the bone, The Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product shrank 4.5% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the biggest contraction since Brazil started measuring GDP by the current system in 1996, Brazil’s statistics agency said Tuesday.

Automotores Gildemeister SA, a Chilean car dealer, agreed to cede options to buy 40 percent of the company to its bondholders as part of a restructuring of debt. The company failed to pay a coupon on its 2021 bonds that was due Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. Gildemeister reached a preliminary agreement with holders of about 70 percent of its $700 million in dollar bonds due in 2021 and 2023 to swap the notes for new bonds guaranteed by real estate and other assets, according to an e-mailed statement.

Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri plans to push through economic reforms that will buy him time for a "tough negotiation" with U.S. hedge funds suing the country over unpaid government debt, Bloomberg News reported. The pro-business Macri, who narrowly won Sunday's presidential election, vows to get the stalled economy moving again but needs to settle a decade-long legal battle with the holdout creditors before he can return to global credit markets.

A spiraling economic crisis has pushed Brazil’s emerging middle class to the brink, The Wall Street Journal reported. Urban unemployment rose to 7.6% in September, tied with August for the highest rate in more than five years. Inflation approaching 10% has forced the poor to stop buying meat and the central bank to ratchet up interest rates. A disorganized effort by the government to stem a widening budget deficit has resulted in painful tax increases, further crimping family budgets.

In Brazil, many captains of finance are unwilling to risk upsetting the government by expressing their concerns publicly about the country’s economic crisis. Don’t put Jose Olympio Pereira in that group. Just seconds into an interview in Sao Paulo last week, the CEO of Credit Suisse Group AG’s Brazil unit made his views crystal clear when, in response to a question about the state of affairs in the country, he replied: "we are very bad." And when he says "very bad," he means it.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is struggling to get the country’s Congress to pass legislation meant to curb a widening budget gap, faces more resistance from members of her own party than almost any other grouping, according to a recent survey of lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ms. Rousseff’s left-wing Workers’ Party is reluctant to embrace spending cuts and tax increases and favors stimulus policies instead, according to the poll of members of the lower house of Brazil’s Congress by political consultancy firm Mosaico.

Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has long been criticized by business interests for her economic policy as growth sputtered, budget deficits ballooned and inflation and interest rates soared. But now she facing increasingly strident calls for the ouster of her finance minister from an unusual source: her own left-wing party, The Wall Street Journal reported.