Huawei announces the construction of U$ 800 million factory in Sao Paulo State, in Brazil, to produce 5G smartphones

According to the website Poder360, the Chinese mobile company Huawei has announced that it will build another factory in Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo. The total investment will be 800 million dollars and is expected to take place between 2020 and 2022. The Chinese giant wants to participate in the 5G auction, which the Brazilian government intends to make by the end of the first half of 2020.

Huawei aims to supply the domestic market and all of South America with devices prepared for the latest generation network.

Huawei currently has factories in two Brazilian cities: Manaus (AM), where it produces fiber optic services, and Sorocaba (SP), where it employs 2,000 people in a factory that produces infrastructure to support telephone operators.

Deutsche Welle says German ministry of Environment will suspend funding for projects in the Amazon; Yanomami leader David Kopenawa denounces illegal gold mining in Roraima

Due to the sharp increase in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, the German Ministry of Environment has decided to suspend funding for projects to protect the forest and biodiversity, german Minister Svenja Schulze said in an interview with Tagesspiegel today, according to the website Deutsche Welle Brazil.

This decision comes after new data released by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) confirmed the significant increase in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. In July this year, the devastation of the biome grew 278% over the same month of 2018 according to the instinct.

This information cost the office of Inpe's president, Ricardo Galvão. President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed Galvão after the release of this information. President Jair Bolsonaro, after the dismissal of the president of Inpe, said the data released by the institute were "inaccurate", but did not indicate exactly where the inaccuracies were. He also mocked the media coverage surrounding Amazon deforestation by saying she was the "chainsaw captain".

Later this week, on a Facebook broadcast, president Jair Bolsonaro again argued for gold mining to be released in the Amazon region. He made this statement alongside indigenous people of the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve, which is in Roraima. Bolsonaro defends the possibility of liberation of the activity even in indigenous lands.

However, according to leader Yanomami Dário Kopenawa, despite the denunciations made by his people, "the prospectors are still there." Kopenawa is the son of historical Yanomami leader David Kopenawa. , he is fixing a problem for the Brazilian state ”, criticizes the young vice president of the Hutukara Yanomami association in Roraima.

Brazilian services sector falls 1% in June and presents the worst performance of 2019, according to IBGE

The service sector in Brazil had the worst rate for June since 2015 with a drop in the 5 surveyed activities. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), compared to June 2018 (series without seasonal adjustment), the volume of services fell 3.6%. This should again bring down expectations for the 2019 Brazilian GDP.

Paraguayan political crisis involving the Brazilian government leads to impeachment request against Paraguayan President Mario Abdo

The energy produced by Itaipu's hydroelectric power plant, which is binational, that is, a state-owned by Brazil and Paraguay, is producing a serious political crisis in Paraguay. 

Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color published alleged private messages from the president of Paraguay Mario Abdo in which he allegedly pressured then Ande (Paraguayan energy state) president Pedro Ferreira for the implementation of the agreement signed in diplomatic minutes on May 24, following pressure from the government of Jair Bolsonaro. 

The point is that if this agreement were followed by Ande it would raise the energy bill for consumers in Paraguay. Therefore, President Abdo would be participating in a negotiation that harmed the population of his country.

The president of Paraguay knew all about the deal with Brazil that was damaging his country if his WhatsApp talks with the director of the Paraguayan energy company obtained by reporter Mabel Rehnfeldt of the ABC Color newspaper are true.

This stance would lead to damage to the Paraguayan government, mainly because ABC's dialogues show that the Paraguayan president knew the terms of the agreement in advance, was aware that he would increase the cost of energy in Paraguay and advised that everything should be kept confidential.

The case prompted the opposition in Paraguay to file an impeachment request against Paraguayan President Mario Abdo.

According to the ABC Color newspaper, then-Paraguayan ambassador to Brasilia, Hugo Saguier, was summoned to a meeting at the Brazilian federal government headquarters in which he was informed that the Brazilian government was dissatisfied with the non-compliance with the agreement by the Paraguayan state company, Ande.

President Jair Bolsonaro says that a famous torturer from dictatorship times in Brazil (1964-1985) is a "national hero"

President Jair Bolsonaro said today that Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, chief of DOI-Codi during the military dictatorship in Brazil, is a "national hero". There are several testimonies of political prisoners who were tortured by Ustra during the dictatorship in Brazil.

According to Miguel Reali Jr., "to consecrate a torturer, thus recognized by the judiciary, as a national hero is to legitimize torture," said the jurist and former minister of justice who was one of the authors of the impeachment request of former president Dilma Rousseff.

The barbarities committed by Ustra are widely known in Brazil. According to Amelinha Teles, one of the victims of torture during the dictatorship, the tortured suffered shocks in the anus, vagina, systematic rapes. One of the torturers masturbated while she was strapped to the "dragon chair" and threw sperm at her.

Cost of living in Brazil: IPCA grows only 0.19% in July

According to the IBGE, the July Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA) varied 0.19%, 0.18 percentage points (pp) above the June result (0.01%). This was the lowest IPCA for the month of July since 2014, when it stood at 0.01%. The accumulated variation in the year was 2.42% and, compared to the last 12 months, the index fell to 3.22%, below the 3.37% recorded in the immediately preceding 12 months. In July 2018, the rate was 0.33%.

The sector that had the biggest increase in prices was housing, whose variation was 1.20%. The reason for this increase was the increase in electricity prices, which, on average, was 4.48% more expensive. Food and beverages were virtually unchanged, with prices rising by 0.01%.

In the accumulated 12-month period through July, the IPCA increased by 3.22%, against 3.37% in the previous month. Reuters poll pointed out analyst expectations were up 0.24% in July, accumulating 12-month advance of 3.28%

Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved the Social Security Reform in the second round; text now goes to the Senate

Pension reform is expected to produce savings of approximately R$ 900 billion over the next 10 years. This number is very close to what the Brazilian financial market expected. Now the text of the Reformation goes to the Senate, but it shouldn't change much.

Even with the approval of the Pension Reform, analysts believe that the year 2019 is already lost. That is, the Brazilian economy must remain stagnant or with very low growth until the end of the year.

The basic interest rate cut of the Brazilian economy, Selic, should continue. The Brazilian Central Bank, through the Copom, cut interest rates from 6.5 to 6% per year. Analysts believe the Copom should cut interest rates again to 5.5% at the next meeting, or at least cut interest rates by 0.25% to 5.75%.

Petrobras (PETR4; PETR3) studies creating two new companies for its thermoelectric plants and transportation to make IPOs on Bovespa (B3); for Goldman Sachs, Petrobras presented "positive news about pre-salt cost efficiency"

According to Jornal do Comércio, Petrobras intends to create two new companies to enable the sale of part of its transportation and energy assets. The information was given by directors of the state and the president Roberto Castello Branco in a meeting with market analysts. 

The strategy is that these companies group several assets to be offered in the stock market through an IPO similar to that made with BR Distribuidora (BRDT3), which generated almost R $ 9.6 billion.

Goldman Sachs analysts published a report following a meeting with Petrobras President and Chief Financial Officer Andrea Almeida highlighting “positive news about pre-salt cost efficiency”. For them, the Brazilian state managed to achieve, in the most recently developed platforms, an extraction cost as low as $ 4 per barrel, or 33% below the pre-salt average in the second quarter of 2019.

The financial market in Brazil celebrates the approval of runoff of Pension Reform by the House of Representatives; Copom report presented by the Brazilian Central Bank's points toward the perspective for new cuts in the basic economy rates, the Selic

After a vote of 370 votes in favor and 124 against, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved the Social Security Reform. Highlights will now be voted on, which may change some points of the approved text.

According to the website Poder360, The Central Bank announced through the report of the last Copom (Monetary Policy Committee) meeting that the basic interest rate may fall again in the coming months. At the committee's last meeting, interest rates fell from 6,5 to 6 percent a year. This is the lowest rate in the historical series.

According to a study by economist Affonso Celso Pastore, the Brazilian economy will take a long time to improve. Latest indicators worry and point to impending economic recession. To make matters worse, weak data on Brazilian industry, trade, and services, the main drivers of the country's growth, point to a fall in Gross Domestic Product in the second quarter of 2019.

Therefore, even with the prospect of interest rate cuts by Copom, the tendency is for the Brazilian economy to continue at a very weak pace.

Brazilian financial market bets on the approval of the Social Security Reform in the second-round vote in the Chamber of Deputies; Tax Reform would be next step

However, there is a possibility of weakening in the text of the Social Security Reform, which aims to save around 900 billion reais in 10 years. Now in the second round, MPs cannot include new passages in the text but may remove parts of the text, which could reduce the total saved.

For most analysts, the Brazilian National Congress must now turn its attention to a Tax Reform. Yesterday, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate announced that they will present a single proposal for tax reform.

According to many Brazilian economists, despite this positive movement of the National Congress to work to present reforms with Social Security, there is still no guarantee of the resumption of economic growth.

Now, for analysts, Brazil needs beyond tax reform, improving the business environment, advancing infrastructure projects and promoting the opening of the economy.

Cost of living in Brazil: Petrobras (PETR4) announces a reduction in gas price, but the measure does not reach consumers; Vale (VALE3) and Petrobras (PETR3) pull Brazilian GDP down

The National Union of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distribution Companies (Sindigás) reported that Petrobras will reduce the price of gas by up to 12% for residential consumption and up to 17% for corporate consumption. Brazilian refineries will practice the reduction in prices from today, August 5.

In Brazil, cooking gas (LPG) is usually sold in 13 kg canisters for residential use and in packages over 13 kg for business use. However, it is still unclear how the measure can cheapen cooking gas. The fall in the price for the end consumer depends on a number of factors, such as an infrastructure that allows the effective reduction of the gas price and that does not exist in Brazil.

According to the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), Vale and Petrobras' performance in the first half of 2019 helped push Brazilian GDP down.

According to Ipea, the poor performance of the Brazilian extractive industry in the first half will decrease by 0.2 percentage point the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expansion of 2019, despite the expected improvement until the end of the year.