Brazil in April 2026: the most important developments in economy
Brazil's economy in April 2026 centred on the state-controlled oil company Petrobras. On 14 April it approved the resumption of construction on a fertilizer plant costing about $1 billion, halted since 2015 and paused during the Lava Jato corruption investigation. Earlier in the month the government nominated the economist Guilherme Mello to chair the Petrobras board, and the company replaced its commercial director, Claudio Mastella, who was fired after President Lula pressed for lower cooking gas prices. Petrobras also announced a new offshore discovery, acquired a block in Sao Tome and Principe, gave up its preference in the sale of Braskem while signing a new shareholder deal, and reaffirmed its fuel price adjustment policy, which the Middle East war put under strain. The government cut gasoline taxes and prepared controls in case of a fuel price rise.
A second theme was public finance and household debt. Lula launched a programme to reduce the debt burden, the government planned a $7 billion withdrawal from a worker fund to reduce debt, and on 27 April it planned to announce a renegotiation programme with discounts of up to 90 percent. Brazil returned to the euro bond market for the first time in over a decade, and Lula proposed ending the six-day workweek. Brazil's trade surplus reached a record $14.2 billion, with oil prices high, and oil exports to China doubled.
A third theme was minerals and foreign trade. USA Rare Earth agreed to buy Serra Verde for $2.8 billion, and Brazil demanded that rare earths be processed domestically while the government sought a strategy amid internal division. Brazil placed the Chinese carmaker BYD on a list of employers over slavery-like working conditions, and China's foreign ministry responded to reports that it had been removed. At the Hannover Fair, Lula defended biofuels and criticised EU regulation, and he called the provisional EU-Mercosur trade deal a mistake.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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