Category: Macroeconomics
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Brazil downgraded by S&P – loses investment grade
Standard & Poor’s stripped Brazil of its investment-grade credit rating on Wednesday, making it even harder for President Dilma Rousseff to regain market trust and pull Latin America’s largest economy out of recession. The faster-than-anticipated downgrade, which will likely hit Brazilian financial markets on Thursday, is a major setback for Rousseff as she tries to…
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Brazil’s GDP contracted 2.6% in Q2 2015 from a year earlier, worse than expected
The Brazilian GDP (Gross Domestic Product) fell by 1.9% in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the first quarter of 2015, according to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) announced on Friday (28). On an year-over-year basis, the decline was 2.6%. The GDP in the 1st half of 2015 decreased by 2.1% compared…
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Copom raises interest rate in 0.5% to 14.25% per year and indicates an stable rate in the near future
As expected by the majority of the economists, the decision of the Central Bank was to raise the SELIC to 14.25% per year. The 0.5% increase is the seventh in the tightening cycle started last october. The raise was expected because the inflation is currently at the dangerously high levels, with the IPCA, the official…
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After Two Months of Contraction, Brazilian GDP Remains Stable in May
After two months of contraction, the Brazilian economy remained stable in May. According to the metric from the Central Bank (IBC-Br), the activity had a modest rise of 0.03% in May compared with April, when it had shrunk 0.88% (revised from 0.84%), in the seasonally adjusted series. May result was below the estimated by analysts.…
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Disposable Income Drops 10% in 6 months in Brazil
The combination of high inflation with layoffs and wage loss caused a downturn of unprecedented proportions in disposable income for consumption in Brazil. The Monthly Employment Survey (PME) of IBGE shows that real wages decreased by 10% between November 2014, peak of recent years, and last May. In the crisis of 2003, a decline of…
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Brazilian Antitrust Council Investigates 15 Foreign Financial Institutions for FOREX Manipulation
Brazilian antitrust council, CADE (Administrative Council for Economic Defense), opened an administrative process to investigate alleged cartel consisting of 15 foreign financial institutions in order to manipulate the foreign exchange market. It is the first antitrust case in Brazil for manipulating rates in the financial market. Some of these banks have been investigated for the…
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COPOM raises Selic, Brazilian interest rate, to 13.75% per year, highest since December, 2008
The Brazilian committee for monetary policy (COPOM) has raised the interest rate benchmark by 0.5% to 13.75% per year. The decision was unanimous and came without a direction indication and in line with expectations. Therefore, Selic is back to the level of december 2008. In the note released with the decision, the committee suggests that…
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IMF Says Brazil is Strong Against Turbulences
Brazil is today more resilient to face external turbulence, despite the significant growth in its debt in US dollar in 2014. The reason for the resilience, according to the IMF, is that the majority of the short-term debt is hedged. This is an undebatable advantage but that also brings a concern: the Real did not…
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Long in Brazil? Then Cheer Against it in FIFA’s World Cup
Wait.. What does football has to do with economy or stock investment? And even worse, how come a negative result for the country can be positive for it’s economy? Fair questions. And to answer them, we have to remind that this year is also election year in Brazil and that football is not just one…