FACTBOX-The IMF common reserve proposal and BRIC savings

Reuters, 11/05/09
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has proposed creating a common pool of reserves to help rebalance the world economy by dissuading emerging market countries from accumulating massive foreign exchange reserves. Such ideas are likely to come into play as Group of 20 nations develop a plan [...]

Swine flu reaches Yanomami Indians in the Amazon

Ian James-The Washington Post, 11/04/09
Swine flu has appeared among Venezuela’s Yanomami Indians, one of the largest isolated indigenous groups in the Amazon, and a doctor said Wednesday that the virus is suspected in seven deaths, including six infants.
The deaths happened in forest villages near Venezuela’s border with Brazil over the past 2 1/2 weeks, said [...]

The north-east: Still trying to catch up

David White-The Financial Times, 11/04/09
Perceptions about Brazil’s north-east are changing. A region long identified with hardship, drought, legendary bandits and social injustice is no longer seen just as a case for treatment, but as a largely untapped source of growth.
During the past few years the north-east – up to now the largest concentration of poverty [...]

Education: Expanding economy discovers it lacks the skills it requires

Andrew Downie-Financial Times, 11/04/09
Like many Brazilian companies, Randon has spent much of the past decade worrying about where to find engineers and technicians to keep it expanding and competitive.
Qualified workers are in short supply in Brazil and Randon, a R$3bn (US$1.7bn) engineering conglomerate that produces everything from brake pads to truck suspensions, decided to attack [...]

FT and Valor Host Conference on “Investing in Brazil”

The Financial Times and Valor hosted a conference, “Investing in Brazil,” about Brazil’s post-recession investment scene. The conference featured President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,  Dilma Rousseff, President Lula’s chief of staff, and Henrique Meirelles, the director of Brazil’s central bank.
President Lula predicted that Brazil will be the fifth largest economy by 2020. Dilma Rouseff [...]

Business life in Rocinha favela

Samantha Pearson-The Financial Times, 11/04/09
A group of teenagers loitering outside Bob’s, Brazil’s equivalent of McDonald’s, adjust the machine guns slung over their shoulders as they turn to fixate on a passing tour bus.
“No pictures! No pictures!” shouts the guide at the English and American passengers, who stare back at the young men with a mixture [...]

Sugar and ethanol: A perfect storm of troubles

Samantha Pearson-Financial Times, 11/04/09
Between 2014 and 2017, manual harvesting will be phased out completely in the state of São Paulo, which accounts for most of the country’s sugar and ethanol production.
This is because the government is to ban the burning of cane fields – a practice necessary when cutting the crop by hand. It is [...]