When Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, capped off her whirlwind visit to Brasília on Monday with a press conference, she announced she would be speaking in French and English followed by a translation into Portuguese. A Brazilian journalist loudly interjected that this was Brazil and there should be a simultaneous translation into Portuguese, which was after all the mother tongue here.

The episode was a small illustration of the assertiveness of the new Brazil. It is this increasing confidence in Brazil of its role on the international stage that led Ms Lagarde to make Latin America’s largest economy the first stop on her tour of the world’s emerging markets to gain support for her bid to become the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund. If she can win over Brazil, she will gain credibility for her campaign among other emerging markets. Continue reading »