Monthly Archives: August 2015

Brazil economy in recession after shrinking 1.9% in Q2

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — Brazil is back in recession after official figures announced Friday showed Latin America’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent in the second quarter of 2015.

Figures from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the IBGE, said the economy had shrunk by 1.9 percent between April and June, after contracting a revised 0.7 percent in the first quarter of the year – itself significantly worse than the result previously announced of -0.2 percent.

A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

The second-quarter figures represent a contraction of 2.6 percent year-on-year – the fifth consecutive negative figure for this comparison.

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Op-ed: Rousseff needs to level with Brazil

Al Jazeera America

SÃO PAULO — On Aug. 16, hundreds of thousands of protesters across Brazil took to the streets demanding President Dilma Rousseff’s ouster over an economy in recession and a corruption scandal at the state-run oil firm Petrobras.

Police estimated at least 879,000 people joined the nationwide demonstrations. Rousseff, who was re-elected to a second term by a whisker 10 months ago, has seen her approval rating dip over the past few months. There is now little confidence in her ability to govern effectively and get Brazil’s economy back into the black.

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Brazil economy ‘to shrink in 2016’ – analysts

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — Analysts believe the Brazilian economy will now contract in 2016, a year previously expected to herald improvements in the country’s sagging economic fortunes, a weekly survey of economists reported Monday.

The Central Bank’s Focus survey of dozens of economic institutions have now forecast for the first time that Brazil’s economy will shrink by 0.15 percent, reversing previous expectations of growth in 2016.

Brazil’s economy is also now expected to contract by over 2 percent in 2015, according to market analysts.

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Huge protests in Brazil call for Rousseff’s impeachment

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Brazil on Sunday in protests against President Dilma Rousseff and her government.

Demanding an end to corruption in Rousseff’s multi-party government, many demonstrators called for Rousseff to be impeached.

Local media reported protests in more than 200 major cities across the country – the third such nationwide outpouring of dissent this year.

Police put crowds nationwide at 879,000 — more than in a similar protest in March but fewer than at one held in April.

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One year to Rio 2016: Troubled waters for Brazil

Translation of blog piece for BBC Russian

In exactly a year’s time, the world’s biggest sporting event – the Olympics – will kick off in Brazil’s Marvellous City, in what is South America’s first chance to host the unrivalled celebration of sport.

Despite Brazil’s experience in hosting major sporting events, the numbers for Rio 2016 are still daunting:

Nearly 11,000 athletics from 205 National Olympic Committees will be taking part in 19 days of competitions in 33 venues across four city clusters.

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