Google expects revenue from its Brazilian operations to surge 80 per cent this year as the government pours huge amounts of investment into the sector, making the country one of the company’s most promising growth markets.
Giving Brazil’s poor more access to the internet and improving connection speeds is a priority of the country’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, who sees the web as the best way to accelerate social and economic development.
“Brazil is a beautiful opportunity for the digital world,” said the head of Google’s Brazilian subsidiary, Fábio Coelho, in an interview with the Financial Times. “Last year we grew 80 per cent in Brazil in terms of revenue and we expect to grow at the same pace this year.”
Latin America accounted for 2-3 per cent of Google’s $29.3bn revenue last year, with analysts estimating that Brazil brought in as much as $500m.
By Samantha Pearson in São Paulo (read more)
By Andre Soliani
April 4 (Bloomberg) — Brazil’s central bank will take the necessary steps to ensure inflation will slow to its 4.5 percent central target over the course of 2012, a government official familiar with monetary policy strategy said.
Policy makers in Latin America’s biggest economy will also attempt to bring 2011 inflation as close as possible to the midpoint of its target, said the official, who asked not to be named because he isn’t authorized to discuss the issues publicly. (Read more)
