Credit boom is not dead in Brazil (not at state banks anyway)
Credit supply in Brazil has been a little puzzling recently. While private-sector banks have been much more careful, state banks have responded to government pressure to keep credit flowing.
No wonder then that government-controlled Banco do Brasil is turning to the international debt markets for help. Continue reading »
Brazil taps market for $750m
Brazilians may have been a little miffed last night when Fitch upgraded Mexico’s foreign-currency debt one notch above Brazil’s but they soon got their own back by launching their biggest bond sale this year.
After eight months since the last sale of government bonds, Brazil finally seized the opportunity on Thursday and launched a $750m reopening of its dollar-denominated global bond due in 2023. Continue reading »
Brazil credit boom: the end is NOT near
If there is one thing that investors are worried about when it comes to Brazil, it is how far the country’s consumer credit boom of the past decade still has to run.
Not too much further, say critics, who point to a rise in average household expenditure on servicing debt. And indeed, private sector credit has doubled over the past decade.
But Data Popular, a research firm, has come up with a startling finding that could give hope that Brazil’s credit binge can continue – without degenerating into a bubble. Apparently, 55m Brazilians – or 40 per cent of the country’s population – don’t have a bank account. Continue reading »
Grendene Q1: bucking the Brazil shoe selling blues
The shoe industry in Brazil has been going through a difficult moment but not for all manufacturers. It is not hard to figure which one has been doing well. Just walk down the street in São Paulo and see what type of shoes people are wearing – those cool ones made from rubber are likely to be from Brazilian manufacturer Grendene’s “Jelly” range. The remainder? Probably Chinese. Continue reading »
Brazil’s love affair with shopping malls
If you look for people on Sunday on the streets of Brazil you will find no one. That’s because they are all inside the country’s burgeoning number of shopping centres, buying stuff and having lunch with their families. Hanging out in a shopping centre on Sunday is part of family life in Brazil and it’s where a lot of household income goes. Continue reading »
Foreigners catch the Brazil bug
Usually countries with strong currencies scare off foreign tourists. Witness Australia’s challenges. But not Brazil, apparently.
According to Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism, the number of foreign visitors has continued to rise even as though the country’s currency has stayed firm at around R$2 per dollar, making it one of the world’s more expensive destinations. In 2012, Brazil received 5.67m foreign visitors, an increase of 4.5 per cent compared with 2011. Continue reading »
Local govts help Brazil stay airborne
After so much bad news in the past few months, such as huge net losses, increases in fuel prices and a weakening of the currency, Brazilian airlines finally have something to celebrate, however small.
The government of the capital district of Brasília has announced a cut in the so-called ICMS services tax on aviation fuel from 25 per cent to 12 per cent, which would represent a tax waiver estimated at R$130m ($65m) per year. This follows similar cuts in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states. Continue reading »
Brazil’s Gol: buckle up
Passengers of Gol, Brazil’s cash-strapped, second-biggest airline, should not be surprised in the coming days if their landings suddenly become a bit more… interesting.
That’s because the airline has announced a bonus for pilots and flight attendants if they can save fuel, possibly by eliminating some of the bells and whistles of comfortable flying. Continue reading »
São Paulo: restaurateurs see red over tomato prices
“Federal Police tried to arrest drug traffickers smuggling narcotics under 500 kilos of tomatoes. The drug dealers fled, leaving behind the cocaine and taking all the tomatoes,” says a spoof news report circulating on the internet in Brazil.
Anyone who enters in a grocery store in the country will get the joke. The official IPCA-consumer price index registered a rise of 106 per cent in the price of tomatoes in the last 12 months. According to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, however, the increase is in fact much greater in the nation’s financial capital, from R$3 per kilogramme to more than R$9 during the same period. Continue reading »
Brazil’s Aché for sale?
Reuters has reported that Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG and Abbott Laboratories are all weighing bids for Aché Laboratorios Farmaceuticos, one of Brazil’s top drug maker. Continue reading »
Brazil industry stumbles in February
If the Brazilian government had a magic wand, it would be the tax known as the IPI, or the industrial production tax.
Every time Brazilian industrial production slips, the government extends an IPI tax break that was first introduced last year on car sales to try to stimulate production. Continue reading »
Gol: in a tailspin
BNDES, Caixa unfazed by rating downgrade
If anyone was worried by Moody’s downgrade of BNDES and Caixa Econômica, the banks themselves seemed unruffled. Continue reading »
Brazil oil royalties row could cost companies
The row over the bill to split Brazil’s oil royalties among the states has entered a new phase. The latest concern over the bill, which was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling this week, is that if it goes through, the so-called “producing states” (those with oil-producing assets within or offshore from their territories, mainly Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and São Paulo) could start increasing local taxes on the oil industry. Continue reading »
Who’s trading with Argentina? Not Brazil
Not so fast buddy!
Brazilians’ nickname for Argentines is hermanos, or brothers. But when it comes to trade, the two sides are increasingly anything but.
Despite the fact that both countries are in the Mercosur free trade bloc, a poll by the Brazil’s Confederation of National Industry with the Argentine consultancy Abeceb.com found that Brazil export volumes to its neighbour slipped 18 per cent in 2012. Continue reading »
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