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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that a bill authorising mining on protected indigenous reserves was ready and only needed to be sent to Congress for consideration. Bolsonaro told supporters that indigenous people should also be allowed to commercially farm on reserves, a practice currently prohibited, and that native populations should be involved in a drive to expand the country’s beef production.
Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said he had reached agreement with Congressional leaders on modernizing the country’s complex tax system next year and one option could be taxing online transactions. Brazil has brought its snowballing public debt under control with reform of the costly pension system and spending cuts, he said, while interest rates are at record lows after the central bank cut its benchmark Selic rate to 4.50%.
While research is scant, evidence points toward pesticide harm to Brazil’s wildlife, including the death of 500 million bees in four Brazilian states between December 2018 and February 2019. Another report found that 40 percent of samples collected from 116 tapirs were contaminated with insecticides, herbicides and heavy metals.
Brazilian authorities targeted Maersk and other companies for allegedly paying bribes to get an edge in securing shipping contracts with Petrobras. Federal prosecutors said that Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, was involved in allegedly paying $3.4 million in bribes related to 11 shipping contracts with Petrobras, worth 592 million reais ($141.07 million).
A Brazilian congressional committee on Tuesday approved the government’s budget for next year, with the bill based on projected 2.32% GDP growth in 2020 to be put to a vote in a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. The government projections contained in the budget proposal see inflation at 3.52% for next year, the benchmark Selic interest target at 4.40% and an average exchange rate of 4 reais to the dollar.
Scepticism on Brazil’s economic recovery have pushed foreigners to withdraw from Brazilian equities at a record pace this year. Foreign investors have already retired R$15.2 billion ($3.7 billion) from stock markets, said a report of the Financial Times based on data from the Sao Paulo Stock exchange.
Brazilian and Chinese government authorities are finalizing a protocol setting health standards for domestic processors to export soymeal to the Asian country, André Nassar, president of oilseeds industry group Abiove, said on Monday. Brazil will process an estimated 43 million tonnes of soybeans in 2019.
Brazilian pharmaceutical company EMS is expected to offer 1.5 billion reais ($357.5 million) to acquire painkiller brand Buscopan from German company Boehringer Ingelheim and its Brazilian rival Hypera SA is also interested in the deal, one source with knowledge of the matter said.
With a bewildering number of choices, banking apps fuelled by Tencent Holdings Ltd, SoftBank Group Corp, and other players are spreading in Brazil, as some critics note a shakeout is looking more probable. Customers buy products, get loans and open checking accounts that are no-fee by tapping into digital wallets from merchants like Lojas Americanas, the Avai football team, or the MercadoLibre shopping platform, Reuters reported.
Brazilian food processors are poised to boost pork and chicken exports in 2020 as Chinese demand for imports remains strong while the Asian country deals with severe disruptions in local production, an industry group said on Thursday.
