News - Lula Raises Brazil’s Minimum Wage 12% as of February

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva raised the minimum wage by 12 percent starting next month, a move the government said will increase incomes of more than 20 percent of the population.

Lula’s provisional order, which Congress must ratify, boosts monthly minimum pay to 465 reais ($201) from 415 reais, Labor Minister Carlos Lupi said. The ministry may also propose to Lula setting up incentives for companies to retain employees. He offered no details of the plan.

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News - Brazil’s Meirelles Says World Crisis Won’t End ‘Soon’ 

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) - Brazilian central bank President Henrique Meirelles said the global economic crisis won’t end “soon.”

The first simultaneous recession in U.S., Europe and Japan since World War II is near its “middle part,” Meirelles said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Davos, Switzerland today.

The global crisis has constrained lending and provoked a worldwide economic slump. Meirelles said the U.S. economic stimulus package “has a lot of chance” of working.

“It could work, I hope it does,” Meirelles said.

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News - Brazil Will Perform Better Than Mexico, Morgan Stanley Says 

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) - Brazilian equity markets will likely fare better than Mexican stocks during the economic crisis because the South American country has a better growth outlook while Mexico is overvalued, Morgan Stanley said.

Brazil’s “sound” financial system, along with its status as a creditor and lower public sector debts will give Latin America’s biggest economy “leeway (previously non-existent) to deal with the issues that will arise,” global emerging markets strategist Jonathan Garner wrote in a note dated yesterday.

Mexican equities are “not priced for disappointment” and valuations are at the highest level in 10 years, he wrote. Mexican stocks are trading at a ratio of price to earnings that is 40 percent above emerging-market averages, a premium that is “unwarranted,” Garner wrote.

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News - Blatter meets Brazilian President

2014 World Cup: 12 hosts cities?

FIFA - On Thursday 29 January, the second day of his visit to South America, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter made his way to the Brazilian capital Brasilia to meet with the country’s President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Also involved in the meeting were the President of the Brazilian Football Association (CBF), Ricardo Teixeira, and FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, among others. The visit took place during the morning at Planalto Palace, the Brazilian Federal Government’s seat of executive power.

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News - Brazil c.bank: no risk to inflation as rates drop

SAO PAULO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Brazil’s central bank said slowing domestic demand has reduced price pressures, giving policy makers room to ease monetary policy without risking the country’s inflation target.

In minutes released on Thursday from its rate-setting meeting last week, the bank’s monetary policy committee also said it sees little sign of a pass through to inflation of a recent slide in the national currency.

The committee, known as the Copom, voted to slash the benchmark Selic lending rate <BRCBMP=ECI> by 1 percentage point to 12.75 percent, the first cut in 16 months and the largest reduction since December 2003.

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