RIO DE JANEIRO, June 20 (Reuters) – Ratings agency Moody’s
Investors Service upgraded Brazil’s sovereign credit rating on
Monday, giving a vote of confidence in the government’s efforts
to prevent Latin America’s largest economy from overheating.

Moody’s lifted Brazil a notch further into investment grade
status to “Baa2″ and retained its positive outlook. The action
underlined the resilience of Brazil’s economy when some
crisis-hit countries in Europe are suffering downgrades.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff struggled on Wednesday to overcome the loss of her most powerful minister, as new questions emerged over who will lead the fight against rising inflation and rebuild her government’s strained relationship with Congress.

Investors mostly took the departure of Chief of Staff Antonio Palocci in stride a day after he quit in a drawn-out scandal over his sudden enrichment and acquisition of a multimillion-dollar home while he was a lawmaker.

BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – As Dilma Rousseff coasted to Brazil’s presidency last year, one doubt kept cropping up — would the career bureaucrat be savvy enough to handle Brazil’s dog-eat-dog political world?

After a turbulent few weeks that have shaken her young administration, the evidence is mounting that she isn’t — a failing that could have serious policy consequences as the government manages a slowing economy and high inflation.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 27 (Reuters) – Policy-makers in
emerging markets need to keep reaching for a broad mix of tools
to cope with the heavy capital flows that have caused
strong-currency headaches and led to fears of asset bubbles –
because such flows are here to stay.

That is largely good news, said economists and officials at
a conference on capital flows held by the IMF and Brazil’s
finance ministry. Hot economies such as Brazil and Indonesia
may see less fallout than some fear when the U.S. Federal
Reserve eventually raises interest rates, tightening the tap on
cheap funds that flooded into Latin America and Asia in search
of higher returns.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The end of the latest phase of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy is unlikely to cause a major pullback of funds from emerging markets and should be a “minor event,” the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist told Reuters on Thursday.

The Fed’s quantitative easing program has been blamed by some officials in emerging markets for encouraging a flood of funds that have pushed up currencies and created overheating pressures in countries such as Brazil.