On Twitter, Brazil's Environment Minister Ricardo Salles insinuates that Greenpeace is linked to oil on beaches in the northeast of the country; Greenpeace goes to court against Salles for hinting NGO link to environmental disaster

In his Twitter account, Brazil's Environment Minister Ricardo Salles has again attacked the environmental organization Greenpeace. This time, Salles hinted that the organization could be behind the oil spill that affects the country's coast.

Greenpeace public policy coordinator Marcio Astrini responded to the accusations by saying that the NGO is "going to court against false statements made by the minister."

In an official statement, Greenpeace stated that it will take “all reasonable legal measures against all statements made by Minister Ricardo Salles. The authorities have to take responsibility and account for the rule of law for their actions.”

This unacceptable behavior is present throughout Jair Bolsonaro's government. The environment minister just replicates the same practice of making irresponsible and unrealistic accusations on social networks. Brazil's own president did this when the Amazon fires gained worldwide attention. At that time, Bolsonaro said, with no proof of his claim, that NGOs could be behind the fires. 

However, investigations by the Brazilian Civil Police and Federal Police indicate, for example, that farmers and businessmen from Novo Progresso were organizers of the 'Fire Day' that burned thousands of hectares in the Amazon region.

Pension Reform is approved by the Brazilian Senate and generates the expectation of an economy of around 800 billion reais over the next 10 years, meanwhile, the Brazilian Military pensions remain untouched and highly deficient

The Social Security Reform approved yesterday in the Brazilian Senate will reach more than 72 million Brazilians, including workers from the private sector and the public service. The main change will be the establishment of minimum retirement age for workers in these two sectors. Now the minimum retirement age for men is 65 and for women 62. The rule also applies to politicians. Pension Reform also extinguished retirement by the time of contribution.

Despite so many signs that the peoples of Latin America no longer support the social inequality caused by the reforms. Chile is an example of this, as it made a Social Security Reform very similar to the Brazilian one and impoverished many of the country's elderly. Currently, Chile is the Latin American country with the highest mortality rate of the elderly by suicide.

The Social Security Reform approved yesterday also did not address several problems. The largest of these is the retirement of the Brazilian military. Currently, this sector represents only 1% of the total retirees in the country but corresponds to 15% of the deficit. Per year, the military costs 47 billion reais per year to Brazilian Social Security and contributes 3 billion reais.

The current government, which has not affected the retirement of the military, has a strong military presence in command positions. According to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, approximately 2,500 members of the Armed Forces hold leadership positions or advise in Bolsonaro government ministries and departments.

There is a proposal for the reform of the Military Welfare in the Brazilian National Congress, but it has not been moving at the same speed as the rules that will now affect all other Brazilian workers.

According to biologists and oceanographers, oil damage and chemical contamination on the northeast coast of Brazil will last for decades

In an interview with BBC Brazil, oceanographer Mariana Thevenin, one of the coordinators of the Brazilian volunteer group Guardião do Litoral, which was formed in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, to clean beaches, estuaries and mangroves since the contamination reached the Brazilian coast, said that substances that contaminate Brazilian beaches as a result of this disaster could "easily fall into the food chain." According to her, "a small fish, for example, can eat something that is contaminated. This goes into jail until it reaches the fish we eat."

Yesterday, according to the website G1, biologists from the Solidarity Fisheries project found spots of crude oil on the area where is the aquatic plants that are the main food of a species on the Brazilian coast that is in serious danger of extinction: the Manatees (Peixe-boi). The discovery occurred in Praia da Lama, municipality of Cajueiro da Praia, 384 km from Teresina, on the Piauí Coast. According to biologists, after contamination of the area, the manatees disappeared from the site.

According to the marine biologist and professor at the University of Pernambuco (UPE), Clemente Coelho Junior, cleaning the oil slicks that had hit the reefs of Carneiros Beach, in Tamandaréa, in Pernambuco is "practically impossible" because the reefs are porous and absorb the substance. Reefs from various other locations in the northeastern Brazilian coast were also affected by the oil.

Until now 900 tons of oil were collected from the beaches. According to Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), the oil has reached 200 locations in 76 municipalities in 9 states of the Brazilian Northeast.

Cost of living in Brazil: Brazilian financial market declined, for the eleventh consecutive time, now the country's inflation forecast in 2019 fell from 3.28% to 3.26%

Financial market economists reduce the inflation estimate for this year and also a forecast for the economy's basic interest rates at the end of 2019 – from 4.75% to 4.5% per year. Some analysts believe basic interest rates in Brazil are likely to fall even lower in early 2020.

As the projections appear in the market bulletin known as the report Focus (Relatório Focus), released today (21.10.2019) by the Brazilian Central Bank (BC). The report is the result of a survey conducted last week with more than 100 financial institutions.

According to one institution, financial market analysts have lowered the inflation estimate for this year from 3.28% to 3.26%. It was the first consecutive drop in this indicator.

Members of the Federal Prosecution Service of Brazil (MPF) file a civil action against President Jair Bolsonaro's government to force him to act to combat the oil spill that is already the biggest environmental disaster in the country's coastal history

Prosecutors in nine northeastern states accuse the Brazilian federal government of omission. They decided to go to court to demand that the federal government trigger a 24-hour contingency plan, which was created in 2013 and was terminated on April 2014 by the Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) government. Following the adoption of the measure imposed by the government of Jair Bolsonaro, dozens of boards of the federal administration and two committees that were part of the National Contingency Plan for Oil Pollution Incidents (PNC), were extinguished.

So far, oil containment that is polluting several beaches in northeastern Brazil is being done by Petrobras and state governments. The governor of Bahia, Rui Costa, publicly discussed with the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, through Twitter.

Costa said Salles should "stop doing politics and work" and asked the minister if she already knew who was responsible for the "very serious environmental accident" and what the minister had done about the leak.

The lack of action by the federal government is very serious indeed. The problem of oil slicks on the Brazilian coast began in August, but only in recent days has the federal government started to act a little more intensely. However, Jair Bolsonaro, who has not visited any of the affected areas, will travel to Asia in the midst of the biggest environmental crisis of the history of the Brazilian beaches.

Since August 30, 187 regions of the Brazilian Northeast coast have been reached. 12 conservation units were polluted. Beautiful beaches that attract thousands of tourists every year were hit, as is the case of São José da Coroa Grande (PE) beach.

The images are terrifying. In many beaches, the residents themselves are gathering to try to remove the oil and save the environment, but the lack of a plan of combat and action by the federal government in these regions is evident.

Cost of living in Brazil: according to IBGE the poorest half of the Brazilian population lives on R$ 413 a month, which is a little over a 100 dollars

Data published today by the IBGE indicate that 104 million Brazilians, the poorest 50% of the population, "live" with $ 413 per month, something around 100 dollars.

If the cut selects the poorest 30% (60.4 million people), the average monthly income drops to R$ 269, just over 60 dollars per month. Meanwhile, 1% of richer Brazilians have a monthly per capita income of R$ 16,297, or something around four thousand dollars.

IBGE also pointed out that income inequality has reached a record level in Brazil. Over the past few years, the poor have gotten poorer as their incomes fell 3.8% between 2017 and 2018, while the rich got richer as their incomes grew 8.2% over the same period.

Thus, income inequality in the country reached a record level in 2018, within the historical series of the National Continuous Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua), initiated in 2012 by IBGE.

Banco Inter (BIDI4) and Uber negotiate partnership in Brazil, according to Reuters

According to Folha de S.Paulo newspaper and Reuters news agency, "Banco Inter and Uber are in negotiations to establish a partnership in the area of financial services." This move "demonstrates the work of the Japanese group SoftBank to integrate their business in Latin America" according to Reuters.

According to Folha de S.Paulo, "SoftBank, which is a shareholder of Uber, has acquired a stake of approximately 15% in Banco Inter this year." These negotiations aim to boost Banco Inter's business in Brazil.

In Brazil, the partnership can target both Uber's more than 600,000 drivers and Banco Inter's more than 3 million customers.

IBR-Br: performance of the Brazilian economy in August 2019 is below expectations

The Brazilian Central Bank Economic Activity Index (IBC-Br), released today, was below expectations. According to this index, a kind of signal of how is going to be the performance of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the country's economic activity is practically stagnant in 2019.

The IBC-Br rose 0.07% in August compared to the previous month, according to seasonally adjusted data by BC.

At this rate, the Brazilian economy grows at a rate of 0.8% per year. Brazilian financial market analysts' expectations were for growth of 0.2%, so performance was well below expectations.

Camil Alimentos (CAML3) company has a 41% drop in its performance with net income of R$ 40.1 million in the second quarter of 2019

Camil Alimentos recorded a net income of R$ 40.1 million in the second quarter of 2019, considered by the company between June and August, performance 41% lower than the reported in the same period last year. Net revenue, in turn, rose 6.8% and totaled R $ 1.2 billion.

Camil is one of the largest food companies in South America. The company's EBITDA reached R$ 88.7 million (-34.1%), with a margin of 7.3% (-4.5pp).

Service sector in Brazil records the fifth fall in 2019, according to IBGE

The Monthly Survey of Services, released today by IBGE, indicated that the volume of services fell by 0.2% in August 2019, compared to July, the sector's fifth negative result in 2019. In August 2018, fall was 1.4%. Year-to-date, despite the decline, the sector advanced 0.5%.

In 12 months, there was a loss of pace of recovery, with accumulated growth going from 0.9% in July to 0.6% in August. When considering the entire historical series, which began in 2011, the volume of services in the country is still 12.1% below its best moment, reached in November 2014.

According to IBGE, retail sales, mainly from supermarkets and hypermarkets, prevented retail sales from being negative in August. The volume of trade in this month was 0.1% compared to July, indicating stability. August 2019 was also the third consecutive month that the sector obtained a positive rate, accumulating a high of 1.2% in the year.

Cost of living in Brazil: the country has deflation of 0.04% in September 2019

According to data from the Broad National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), released today by the IBGE, Brazil had, in September, a deflation of 0.04%. This is the lowest result for this month since 1998.

The main factors for this number were the fall in the cost of food away from home, which fell 0.53%, and the fall in the cost of food at home, which fell 0.70%. There was also a fall in-home appliance prices, which was 2.26%, and on TV, sound and computer prices, which was 0.90%.

The National Index of Construction (Sinapi), also released today by the IBGE, grew 0.37% in September. The main reason for the increase was the cost of labor.

The Regional Monthly Industrial Survey, also released today by the IBGE, indicates that after three months of negative rates, the São Paulo industry, the largest in Brazil, grew 2.6% in August, influenced by the increase in sugar production.