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Jun 15

IOF Taxes exempted from loans

Six percent IOF tax exempted from foreign loans

Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Rousseff

The Brazilian administration is rolling back curbs on foreign capital imposed in the past 19 months after the real posted the biggest loss of any major currency this year.

The government exempted foreign loans which matures in more than than two years from a 6 percent tax to help companies and banks rollover debt, said Finance Minister Guido Mantega. The financial transaction tax was before charged on loans taken abroad maturing as many as five years.

The tax was one of a series of measures taken to weaken the real and protect exporters from what Rousseff dubbed “a monetary tsunami” unleashed by rich nations seeking to devalue their currencies. Mantega said today that the “excessive liquidity” that led to capital controls ended with the worsening of the European debt crisis.

“Before the crisis worsened, it was easier to have access to long-term credit,” Mantega told reporters in Brasília. Brazilian banks and companies “need to rollover loans taken in the past, and this makes it easier.”

After being the best performing major currency in the first two months of the year, the real reversed course and plunged, raising concern the move could stoke inflation as imports became more expensive.

Growth Forecasts and GDP review

Economists covering the Brazilian economy reduced their 2012 economic growth forecast for a fifth straight week on June 8. The world’s biggest emerging market after China will expand 2.53 percent this year, less than the 2.73 percent growth rate posted last year, according to the median estimate in a central bank survey of about 100 analysts. GDP Preview: The IBC-BR recorded a high of 0.22% in April compared to March, which means that the economy is growing again. The above data was reviewed. In March, a drop was 0.61%, in February, up 0.56% and in January, down 0.38%.

New stimulus package

Government announced a further package – The government today announced a line of credit to the states, through BNDES, which can reach $ 20 billion. Expectations are that the new credit lines increase investment to stimulate the economy.

Oct 06

Steve Jobs is not Brazilian:The Apple founder Steve Jobs, died without seeing his company operate normally in Brazil.

Steve Jobs is not Brazilian

Icon Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died

The Apple founder Steve Jobs, died without seeing his company operate normally in Brazil. The he is rightly being hailed as a revolutionary genius who transformed the way we sell and consume culture and technology. That’s a lot. But one thing he could accomplish was to make his business occupy the space it deserves in the phenomenal Brazilian market. And that says a lot more about Brazil than Jobs.

To date, Apple products are commercialized by third parties in Brazil, as the American company was unable to develop a viable business model in the homeland of the high taxes and poor business environment.

Brazilians pay double or more than Americans for an Ipad created by Jobs and his team. The last stand for the normalization of the action here was Apple’s announcement, over hyped to say the least, the construction of an IPad factory here.

The announcement came during Rousseff’s trip to China in April. In the absence of any tangible result of the visit, it was announced with great fanfare and no substance that Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that manufactures iPads would open a new factory in Brazil to produce them here. It was what Dilma and PT needed to capture the emerging middle class in the country.

As I wrote here at that time, Apple cannot sell its products in Brazil because of its poor economic conditions, called on the Taiwanese company that manufactures and iPods, IPads in China to produce them here and so get around the precarious economic environment and still be sold as an asset of Dilma’s visit to China. There is the “spin”!

The factory as of today is still obviously a promise. First there was talk of initial production in November, then that BNDES would finance the US$ 12 billion investment, then came the talk that there was no skilled labor in the country to implement the project, then start the operation would begin with Mexican “maquiladoras” only assembling the products here.

The fact is that Steve Jobs is dead, and Brazil is still largely excluded the Apple revolution. While we continue with one of the most expensive and slowest internet connections in the world.

These are the things that explain why we are behind despite the huge advances in recent years, and our dependence on blessed commodities, which without them we would have disastrous trade deficits.

If Jobs was able to transform so much, who knows that maybe this commotion with his death will illuminates the heads of our bureaucrats and accelerate liberalization of the Brazilian market and digital technology.

Taxing technology is taxing knowledge, innovation and the future. It closed the borders to Steve Jobs.

Attributions:

BR ECON: Steve Jobs | Expat Living in Goiânia, Brazil. /

Article by Sérgio Malbergier, Folha de São Paulo, published on Expatbrazil

Sergio Malbergier is a journalist. He was editor of the special money section of Folha (Dinheiro – 2004-2010) and Mundo (2000-2004), correspondent in London (1994) and Special Envoy for Folha in Iraq, Israel and Venezuela, among others. He has directed two short films, A Árvore (The Tree -1986) and Carô no Inferno (Dear Hell – 1987). He write for Folha.com on Thursdays.

Sep 16

Brazil will raise taxes on imported cars to protect domestic production

The government will more than doubled the IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products) for domestic and imported vehicles that do not meet requirements such as investments in technology and a percentage of 65% domestic produced materials.

Because of a common automotive regime between Brazil and Argentina, automakers operating in the neighboring country and sold to the Brazilian market will also be affected. The announcement was made Thursday by the Ministers Guido Mantega (Finance), Fernando Pimentel (Development) and Mercadante (Science and Technology).

According to Mantega, the measure can leave cars 25% to 28% more expensive than today. The government says the measure will impact on car prices by up to two months.

Maserati

This Maserati will be around 30% more expensive after the new implementation of the higher taxes on imports

Currently, the tax rates of the cars produced in Brazil range from 7% to 25% depending on the model and power the car. The new rate will increase by 30 percentage points, from 37% to 55% depending on engine capacity. For cars up to 1,000 cc, the IPI will rise from 7% to 37%. For vehicles from 1000 to 2000 cc, the rate, currently between 11% and 13%, will rise to 41% to 43%. In addition to passenger cars, the measure will include the manufacture of tractors, buses, trucks and light commercial vehicles.

NATIONAL PRODUCTION

To maintain the current rate and avoid the increase, automakers must prove they aare manufacturing cars with a least 65% domestic produced materials and that they have centers of technological development in Brazil. In 60 days, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade will check the qualifications of companies that meet the requirements and will not have tax increase. In addition, companies will have 15 months to maintain or expand their investments in technology.

The measurement will be in effect until December 2012 and is part of the plan to stimulate the industry ‘Brasil Maior’, announced last month by President Rousseff.

COMPETITIVENESS

The objective of the measure is to foster competitiveness in Brazil, and make the vehicles manufactured in the country have more local content. The government hopes thereby to stimulate production in the country one of the ways to generate more employment in the country. “It’s a complementary program of  “Brazil Maior” to compete more solid with the import cars by means of stimuli for the Brazilian industry, one that produces vehicles in Brazil and Argentina,” said Mantega.

“It has happened that the market is depleted, the crisis has reduced consumption. There is excess capacity and a greater competition for markets. Brazil has maintained high sales, re-established after the 2008 crisis of production and consumption. But there is an appropriation that by international manufacturers, “he said.

The minister said the goal is to prevent the export of manufacturing jobs. “We run the risk of being exporting jobs to other countries. We were concerned with the increase of vehicles in stock. Industry is innovation, creates jobs and the market should be enjoyed by the domestic industry,” said Mantega.

Sep 13

BRICS may help Europe out – Business LIVE

BRICS may help Europe out – Business LIVE.

BRICS may help Europe out

The BRIC (ex) presidents

The BRIC (ex) presidents

The BRICS group of emerging markets may ramp up holdings of euro-denominated bonds in an effort to help European countries stuck in a sovereign debt crisis, Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed official. There was still “no firm dialogue” about that possibility, the newspaper said, noting that purchases may be limited to debt from the more financially solid European nations.

A decision could be taken later this month when finance ministers and central bank presidents from Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA meet in Washington, the newspaper added. Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, said the BRICS nations would discuss the eurozone problems next week.  “We’re going to meet next week in Washington and we’re going to talk about what to do to help the European Union get out of this situation,” Mantega was quoted as saying.

However, central banks in Brazil and SA declined to comment on the story, the newspaper said.

 

Aug 23

Brazil | Military Dictatorship | Truth Commission

Brazil grapples with its violent history

For the first time, Brazil is allowing access to documents that might unmask tortures from the military dictatorship.

When President Dilma Rousseff, a former urban guerrilla tortured for 22 straight days with electric shocks under Brazil’s military dictatorship, took office in January she was ambivalent about her past as a young activist: “I don’t have any regrets, nor any resentment or rancor,” she said.

Rousseff has since done little for those looking for justice for crimes under the dictatorship. For one, her new government has waffled on whether it supports allowing archival documents to be declassified as confidential in a proposed access-to-information law. Continue reading

Aug 20

Politics in Brazil: Dilma tries to drain the swamp | The Economist

Politics in Brazil: Dilma tries to drain the swamp | The Economist.

As another minister goes, Brazil’s president may find that the price of trying to clean up politics involves forgoing reforms the country needs.

SHE arrived in the presidential palace with a reputation as a no-nonsense manager, but one who had never previously held elected office. Almost eight months into her term as Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff has found herself sucked into the political swamp that is Brasília. She has reacted firmly to corruption scandals, and is striving to trim budget pork and to fill senior government jobs on merit rather than through political connections. Her reward has been signs of mutiny in her coalition. With the world economy deteriorating, whether Ms Rousseff can impose her authority on her allies matters a lot for Brazil’s prospects.