The chief executive of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, who has stayed in his post despite last month being fired by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, resigned on Monday after a new fuel price hike that enraged Bolsonaro.
Jose Mauro Coelho is the third Petrobras chief executive to leave since February last year in a standoff between the company and Bolsonaro over fuel prices.
Petrobras announced Coelho’s resignation on Monday.
Photo: Reuters
The company said Fernando Borges — its head of exploration and production — would temporarily take over until government pick Caio Paes de Andrade, a Brazilian Ministry of the Economy official, assumes the top job.
Coelho was appointed for a one-year term in April after Bolsonaro fired his predecessor, Joaquim Silva e Luna, in March after slightly more than a year in the post.
The far-right president said then that the price of fuel — set by Petrobras, but tied to international market movement — was “unaffordable” and amounted to a “crime” against Brazilians.
Silva e Luna, in turn, had replaced Roberto Castello Branco, fired by Bolsonaro in February last year.
Last month, Bolsonaro dismissed Coelho after just 40 days on the job. He had been waiting to be formally removed at the company’s next shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for next month.
Bolsonaro, seeking re-election in October, is widely blamed by voters for double-digit inflation, polls show, on the back of skyrocketing global and local fuel prices.
He faces an uphill battle against leftist former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), remembered for presiding over a booming economy.
Brazil has seen fuel prices surge more than 33 percent in a year, official figures showed.
Inflation stands at 11.73 percent, far above the central bank’s target of 3.5 percent.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in crude prices in the past few weeks, adding to the pressure.
On Friday, Petrobras announced a 5.18 percent hike in gasoline prices and more than 14 percent for diesel, blaming “a challenging scenario in Brazil and the world.”
Bolsonaro reacted angrily, saying Petrobras “could sink Brazil in chaos.”
The company reported a net profit of 44.6 billion reais (US$8,6 billion) in the first quarter of this year — about 38 times the result of a year earlier.
Brazillian Chamber of Deputies President Arthur Lira — a Bolsonaro ally — has proposed raising taxes on Petrobras profits — which he has described as “absurd.”
The Brazilian National Congress is also mulling a Bolsonaro proposal to lower the tax on fuel.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS