According to the Brazilian Central bank figures quoted by financial and business daily Valor, the share of total assets held by Brazil's five largest banks rose to 65.72% at the close of 2008, up more than 13 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

São Paulo, Brazil's largest city and the main economic hub in the country, received 11 million tourists last year. The figure - 2.8% higher than recorded in 2007 - is an annual record high, according to figures disclosed Monday, January 5, by São Paulo Turismo (SPTuris), a company that promotes tourism in the city.

Brazilian trend for the 2009 winter for costume jewelry, handbags and shoes will be seen at the 11th edition of the Mostra/Acessórios, to take place from January 11 to 14 at the Fecomércio Events center, in São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil.

The purpose of the overseas offices of Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, is transferring the knowledge of the state company to underdeveloped or developing countries and cooperating, says Antonio Prado, analyst at Embrapa, in charge of relations with the African nations.

Brazil is sending 14 tons of donations of medication and food to the victims of the conflict between Israel and the Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, next Friday, January 9. According to information supplied by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Trade, the cargo will be shipped to Jordan first, from where it should be transported to Gaza with the help of the Jordanian Charity Organization.

Brazil's Finance Ministry informed this Monday, January 6, that the Brazilian National Treasury is going to issue this year's first batch of Bonds of the Republic denominated in dollars, maturing in January 2019. The bonds are issued in the international market in order to manage the foreign debt.

Total sales of new vehicles in December 2008, in Brazil,  grew 11.54% compared with November, according to figures released January 6 by the Brazilian National Federation of Motor Vehicle Distributors (Fenabrave). In December, 345,447 units were sold, as against 309,712 in the previous month.

According to Fitch Ratings, which has just released a special report entitled "Brazilian Water Utilities: Companies Ready to Invest," fundamentals for the Brazilian water utility sector are positive and are poised to remain so over the next few years.

Interchange Serviços S.A., one of Brazil's largest, in-country providers of electronic data interchange (EDI) services owned by Banco Real, Citibank Brazil, EDS, an HP company, and Itaú Unibanco, has been bought by GXS, a US-based provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions.

The Itaipu hydroelectric plant attained a new record in energy production, having generated 94,684,781 megawatts per hour (MWh) in 2008. The previous record-high was recorded in the year 2000, when the plant generated 93.427.598 MWh.

It was the lowest result since 2003 for the Brazilian balance of trade this past year. Brazil ran a surplus (exports minus imports) of only US$ 24.735 billion in 2008. While exports reached US$ 197.942 billion imports totaled US$ 173.207 billion, according to information supplied by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, is on the road and crossing borders. Since 1998, the company has maintained important projects overseas. Different actions are carried out, such as the Embrapa Foreign Virtual Laboratory (Labex), technical visits for exchange of experiences and, more recently, regional offices.

The international financial crisis and the resulting postponing of the disclosure of the Petrobras Business Plan for the 2009/2013 period are not deterring Brazil's oil and gas multinational.

The Brazilian financial market, in its first survey this year, confirmed most of the forecasts made last week concerning the Brazilian economy. The Focus bulletin, released every Monday by the Central Bank of Brazil, has maintained the inflation rate expected for 2009 at 5%, measured according to the Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA).

According to reports by Brazilian daily O Estado de S. Paulo, Brazil plans to double the number of troops along the borders of its vast Amazon rain forest area in the framework of the Protecting Amazon project.