Renault’s factory in São José dos Pinhais (state of Paraná) stopped 41 days throughout 2021 because of semiconductors shortage. For the same reason, between Monday and Friday the unit’s line work will be interrupted again. To the impossibility of working at full speed, which has become routine in the automotive industry, is added, currently, a […]
The weakening of globalization intensified by the war in Ukraine opens a good chance for Brazil to reduce its economic isolation and connect to global production chains for goods and services. But the opportunity will be lost without opening the economy and comprehensive economic reforms that make Brazil more attractive to international companies. The thesis […]
The current scenario of fiercer competition between brands, following the drop in consumer disposable income, has made the industry spend more to try to improve its sales. Amounts paid by companies to retail chains, or negotiations involving discounts on invoices, lost strength in the first year of the pandemic, but accelerated again at levels above […]
The sale of the chemical industry Oxiteno — which belonged to Ultra group — to Indorama — leader in the Brazilian PET resin market — was concluded on Friday for $1.48 billion. This way, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) reached the top of the ranking among the ethylene oxide and surfactants producers in the […]
The successful auction of the Companhia Docas do Espírito Santo (Codesa) may boost the other port privatization projects underway. However, market players are skeptical about the feasibility of getting them off the ground by 2022, especially the privatization of the Port of Santos — a much more complex project from a technical and political point […]
Faced with rising inflationary pressure and monetary tightening in major economies, the Brazilian Central Bank increased the renminbi share in its foreign exchange reserves to 4.99% in 2021, the highest since the Chinese currency became part of the basket in 2019. The share is four times higher than the previous year’s allocation, of 1.21%. The […]
The Brazil of interest rates at double-digit levels produced a first quarter of good results for investors. It was good for those who stayed with the safety of fixed income and even better for those who were encouraged to shoulder the stock market risk and bet on more volatile classes, such as multimarket and stock […]
The unemployment rate in Brazil reached 11.2 percent in the mobile quarter encompassing December 2021 through February this year. The index is lower than in the quarter ended in November (11.6%) and in the one ended in February last year (14.6%). The figures can be found in the Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), released […]
Unlike health and education, states’ total spending on public security in 2021 was below that seen before the pandemic period. Spending on public security, considering the 26 states and the Federal District, was 3.4% lower than in 2019, despite the favorable situation for revenues in the last two years. In addition to fueling demonstrations that […]
The favorable global environment for commodity exporters and the double-digit interest rates in Brazil, which already outpaces recent inflation figures, have provided much support for the Brazilian real since the beginning of the year. When assessing the terms of trade, in particular, it is possible that the real has room to appreciate further in the […]