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Brazil’s January inflation stands at 0.33%, remains within target

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Electricity and gasoline prices rose in January, causing Brazil’s official inflation for the month of the year to close at 0.33 percent, the same level as in December. In January 2025, the rate was 0.16 percent.

With this result, official inflation—as gauged by the country’s consumer price index IPCA—has reached 4.44 percent over the past 12 months, thus within the government’s maximum tolerance limit.

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Gasoline exerted the greatest upward pressure, accounting for 0.10 percentage points (p.p.) of the index, while cheaper electricity bills accounted for -0.11 p.p.

The data were released Tuesday (Feb. 10) by the statistics bureau IBGE.

Target

The inflation target set by the National Monetary Council (CMN) is three percent, with a tolerance of 1.5 percentage points above or below – i.e., a range of 1.5 to 4.5 percent. Since last November, the IPCA has been within the tolerance limit.

Since the beginning of 2025, the target assessment period has been the previous 12 months, rather than just the end of the year (December). The target is considered unmet if the tolerance range is exceeded for six consecutive months.

Index

The IPCA calculates the cost of living for families with incomes between one and 40 minimum wages. In total, prices are collected for 377 sub-items, including products and services, across ten metropolitan areas in the country.

Petrobras acquires 42.5% stake in oil exploration block in Namibia

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Petrobras has acquired a stake in an oil exploration block off the coast of Namibia, in southwestern Africa. The area is located in the Lüderitz Basin and covers approximately 11,000 square kilometers (km²).

The information was disclosed in a material fact, a statement that companies make to investors.

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Brazil’s state-owned company states it acquired a 42.5-percent stake in the area, identified as Block 2613. French oil company TotalEnergies, Petrobras’ partner in oil production in Brazil, acquired another 42.5 percent.

Namcor Exploration and Production, a Namibian government-owned company, owns 10 percent, while Eight Offshore Investment Holdings holds five percent.

The stakes acquired by Petrobras and TotalEnergies were sold by Eight and Maravilla Oil & Gas.

The statement does not specify the purchase price. The company adds that the deal’s completion is still subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions – including government and regulatory approvals, notably from Namibia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy.

Search for reserves

Petrobras President Magda Chambriard points out that the new stake is part of the company’s efforts to rebuild its oil and gas reserves.

“We have been carefully evaluating areas that have shown good prospects both in Brazil and in other parts of the world,” she said, adding that the purchase marks the oil giant’s return to Namibia.

Petrobras Exploration Director Sylvia Anjos underscored the company’s knowledge of the geological formation of the exploratory basin.

“We have extensive geological knowledge of the region, which is largely analogous to our sedimentary basins. We are looking closely at the west coast of Africa and the good opportunities there. This was the case in São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa, and now Namibia,” she noted.

Africa

Petrobras is investing in the African continent with a view to increasing its current oil reserves, which are expected to start declining in the 2030s. 

Petrobras resumed operations on the African continent in 2024. On February 8 of that year, the company completed the acquisition of stakes in three exploration blocks in São Tomé and Príncipe, off the west coast of Africa. In two blocks, the stake is 45 percent; and in the third, 25 percent.

In October 2024, Petrobras’ board of directors approved operations in South Africa, enabling the acquisition of a stake in the Deep Western Orange Basin (DWOB) block through a competitive process conducted by TotalEnergies.

Americas

In addition to positions in Brazil and Africa, Petrobras has operations in South America and the US.

In Colombia, the state-owned company announced in December 2024 the discovery of the largest gas reserve in the country’s history. The giant Sirius-2 well – explored in a consortium with Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-owned oil company – boasts a capacity equivalent to nearly half of Petrobras’ daily gas production in Brazil.

In Argentina, through its subsidiary Petrobras Operaciones S.A., the company holds a 33.6-percent stake in the Rio Neuquén production asset.

In Bolivia, the oil company produces gas mainly in the San Alberto and San Antonio fields, with a 35-percent stake in each of these service operation contracts, which are operated primarily to supply gas to Brazil and Bolivia.

In the US, operations take place in deepwater fields in the Gulf of Mexico, with a 20-percent stake held by Petrobras America Inc., forming the MPGoM joint venture with Murphy Exploration & Production Company.

Brazil’s oil and gas production grew 13.3% in 2025

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Oil and gas production in Brazil reached 4.897 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 2025. The result is 13.3 percent higher than the year before and represents the highest volume ever recorded in Brazil. The previous record was 4.344 million boe/d, back in 2023.

The data come from the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP), the sector’s regulatory body.

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Boe is a unit of measurement that standardizes the volume of natural gas and oil, converting gas to the energy value equivalent to a barrel of crude oil, making it possible to add up production.

The record performance in 2025 is believed to confirm the extractive industry as one of the drivers of national industry. Brazilian industrial production grew 0.6 percent last year, with the extractive industry advancing 4.9 percent, as per the latest official figures.

Gas and oil record

Oil production in specific reached a record 3.770 million barrels/day last year, 12.3 percent higher than the previous year.

Natural gas output hit 179 million cubic meters per day (m³/d), also the highest ever recorded, up 17 percent compared to 2024.

Pre-salt

When detailing the origin of oil and gas production, the agency identifies the leading role of pre-salt fields – reservoirs drilled at a depth of 5 to 7 thousand meters.

Pre-salt accounts for 79.63 percent of oil equivalent production. Post-salt accounts for 15.45 percent, and onshore fields account for 4.92 percent.

The five offshore fields with the highest oil and gas production are:

Tupi – 21.36%
Búzios – 20.47%
Mero – 14.44%
Itapu – 4.19%
Jubarte – 4.14%

By basin, Santos is the production champion, with 77.79 percent of everything extracted from the seabed. Next is the Campos basin, with 19.67 percent. Both are located on the southeast coast.

Rio de Janeiro state is the country’s largest oil producer, accounting for 87.8 percent of the oil extracted last year. From 2024 to 2025, Espírito Santo (5.12%) took the runner-up spot from São Paulo (4.89%).

Petrobras

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is the largest oil and gas producer in Brazil. In December, the fields operated by the state-owned company – in consortium with other oil companies or not – accounted for 90.03 percent of national production.

The fields in which Petrobras operates alone produced 23.9 percent of Brazilian production in December.

Unemployment in Brazil falls to 5.1% in December, lowest ever recorded

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In the quarter ending in December, Brazil recorded an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent – the lowest ever recorded by the Continuous PNAD (national household sample survey).

Looking at the consolidated data for 2025, the annual unemployment rate stood at 5.6 percent, also the smallest in history. The number of employed people reached 103 million.

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Last year also saw a record in the average monthly income of Brazilian workers, which reached BRL 3,560, up 5.7 percent (or BRL 192) compared to 2024.

The number of formally employed workers in the year was also the highest ever recorded – 38.9 million people, up 1 million from the previous year.

The data were released Friday (Jan. 30) by Brazil’s statistics bureau IBGE.

The survey

The IBGE survey assesses Brazil’s labor market behavior for people aged 14 and over and takes into account all forms of employment – whether formal or informal, temporary or self-employed, for instance.

According to the institute’s criteria, only people who actively sought employment 30 days prior to the survey are considered unemployed. A total of 211 thousand households are visited across all states plus the Federal District.

The highest unemployment rate ever recorded in the time series, which began in 2012, was 14.9 percent, reached in two periods: in the rolling quarters ending in September 2020 and in March 2021 – both during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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