Brazilian Business Roundup - August 6

If you have a keen interest in Brazil's business landscape, you've come to the right place! We're here to curate the most relevant business developments in Brazil and Latin America just for you. In 5 minutes, we'll give you an overview of the most compelling business issues in Brazil and Latin America. Our goal is to provide you with insights will help you make better business decisions. So let's dive right in!

?? Climate emergency a reality in Brazil. A new report by the National Confederation of Municipalities shows that 93 percent of Brazilian cities have been affected by natural disasters in the past decade — with 4.2 million people being forced to leave or losing their homes. Read more

???? Chinese tourists wanted. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s tourism capital, has joined the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF). The move will allow the city to develop strategies specifically for a Chinese audience. Read more

?? From murder capital to fears of gentrification. Drug news from Colombia can be dishearteningly repetitive. But recent decades have shown signs of hope, not least with the drastic drop in per capita homicides, from a terrifying 85 per 100,000 at the start of the 1990s to the still high but much improved 26 per 100,000 last year. Read the details

?? Equal pay law an essential step. Brazil’s new equal pay law, which went into effect in early July, imposes penalties on companies that wage discriminate between men and women performing the same job. Read more

?? Big Tech payments for news. Globo , Brazil's largest media group, is leading the charge for tech platforms to pay for news. But its demands are also the biggest obstacle to resolving the issue. Read more

?? World’s biggest digital banks are in Brazil. Today, Nubank is not only the largest digital bank in Latin America, but it is also the fourth-largest financial institution in Brazil overall by number of customers (77.6 million), according to June data from the Central Bank. Read more

?? SNEAK PEEK

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???? Back in the top ten?

Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2075, Brazil will be the only Latin American economy in the world’s top ten. It estimates that Brazil’s economy will grow nearly sixfold between 2020 and 2075. Brazil’s “exceptionally weak performance in the past 10-15 years is expected to be partially reversed over time, as the significantly negative contribution from productivity momentum is assumed to wane,” the bank says.

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?? Brazilian companies get upgraded credit rates. Following last week’s upgrade of Brazil’s sovereign rating from “BB-” to “BB,” Fitch Ratings on Monday upgraded the long-term credit ratings of 19 Brazilian companies from “BB” to “BB+,” with a stable outlook. Read the details

?? Markets improve inflation forecasts. Financial markets have lowered their year-end inflation forecasts again, according to a weekly survey of top-rated investment firms conducted by the Brazilian Central Bank ( Banco Central do Brasil ).? Read more

?? Illegal gold mining has returned to Yanomami land. Yanomami indigenous associations issued a statement warning that illegal wildcat mining activities have returned to the protected land, with reports of unauthorized gold extraction operations on the Apiaú and Couto de Magalh?es rivers. Read the details

?? State revenues down nearly 10 percent. Eighteen of Brazil’s 26 states recorded a decline in revenue from the ICMS state goods and services tax in the first half of 2023. Read more

??? No consent to track. Google’s lawyers have argued to Brazilian authorities that the company does not need express consent from users to collect geolocation data because there are other legal grounds for doing so, such as when the data is needed to provide services. Read the details

??? AI to preserve indigenous languages? IBM Research and C4AI - Center for A.I. # USP+IBM+FAPESP Brazil , an artificial intelligence laboratory at the USP - Universidade de S?o Paulo , are testing and building tools with young people from a community that speaks Mbya Guarani, a variant of the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language. Read more

??? On this week’s podcast …

Every Wednesday we bring you a new episode of the Explaining Brazil podcast — which was a finalist for the Digiday Media Awards for Best Podcast! You can find our podcast on all major podcast platforms! Subscribe today and never miss an episode.

This week, Almost eight years ago, Brazil suffered its biggest environmental disaster in history, when the Fund?o dam in Mariana burst and spilled an untold torrent of toxic sludge into the Rio Doce. Now, a gigantic class-action suit in England seeks proper reparations.

Euan Marshall talks with Thomas Goodhead , who is currently litigating the largest class action in UK history against global mining giant BHP, representing over 700,000 victims of the Mariana Dam collapse.

You can listen to the full podcast here.

If you like our podcast, we would be happy to share with you how advertising on Explaining Brazil could leverage your business to the next level. Drop us an email at [email protected]

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Founded in 2017, The Brazilian Report is an English-language media outlet uniquely positioned to provide an insider's view of current affairs in Brazil and Latin America, with a mission to make Latin Americans' voices heard and become the reference for Latin American news worldwide. An award-winning newsroom, The Brazilian Report has just received recognition for its portfolio of newsletters at this year's Wan Ifra Awards.

Within 6 years of existence, The Brazilian Report has gained international recognition. It has become the go-to source for several embassies, think tanks and international news outlets, including Time Magazine, CNBC, BBC Worldwide, Vox, Axios, Radio France, CGTN, among others.