Brazilian Real Advances on Outlook for Rousseff’s Economic Team

Filipe Pacheco – Bloomberg, 11/10/2014

Brazil’s real rose for a second day on speculation President Dilma Rousseff will appoint an economic team that will revive growth and on wagers the U.S. Federal Reserve will avoid an early increase in interest rates.

The currency gained 0.3 percent to 2.5522 per dollar at the close of trade in Sao Paulo after dropping 3.2 percent last week. Swap rates, a gauge of expectations for changes in Brazil’s borrowing costs, fell 0.04 percentage point to 12.61 percent on the contract maturing in January 2017. The real advanced amid optimism that the next finance minister will move away from policies that helped lead Brazil into a recession in the first half of the year. Today’s increase was the biggest among 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg after the South Korean won.

“There has been a lot of expectation that a new economic team will be able to restore growth,” Camila Abdelmalack, an economist at CM Capital Markets in Sao Paulo, said in a telephone interview.

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Brazil: The ‘El Dorado’ for international migrants

Wyre Davis – BBC, 10/14/2014

The jungle state of Acre is a long way from anywhere. Tucked into the north-western corner of Brazil, it is closer to the big towns of eastern Bolivia and southern Peru than it is to the industrial heartland of southern Brazil. Yet it is through here that many migrants looking for a better life or escaping persecution in their own countries choose to enter Brazil.

On the edge of town, where the paved road runs out and where the jungle meets the last few buildings, several times a day small convoys of mini-vans come down the track and people get out.

Like new arrivals anywhere, they look slightly bewildered, trying to get an immediate bearing on their surroundings. But they have little need to worry.

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Brazil’s young professionals look to emerging markets

Paulo Cabral – CCTV America, 09/22/2014

Brazil has become a destination for those who look for employment in emerging markets over the last a few years. A growing number of students and young professionals are moving to Brazil. CCTV America’S Paulo Cabral reports.

In one recent survey, 90 percent of the young professionals said they expected to work in at least three or four countries during their lives. Among the BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Brazil was the preferred destination for 40 percent of the students.

The recession in Brazil hasn’t discouraged young professionals from coming here to build careers. Because of a shortage of skilled workers, the labor market remains tight and unemployment remains close to a record low of 4.9 percent.

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Insight: Brazil’s slump hits job market as election approaches

Brad Haynes and Silvio Cascione – Chicago Tribune, 8/22/2014

Many of Brazil’s biggest retailers, homebuilders and carmakers are cutting jobs as Latin America’s largest economy teeters on the edge of recession, a fresh blow to President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election bid.

For years, low unemployment was key to Brazil’s emergence as an economic power and important gains in the fight against poverty.

The unemployment rate remains near record lows of around 5 percent and the leftist Rousseff regularly touts it as a success of the ruling Workers’ Party over the last 12 years.

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