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Macro-financial risk 2026-04-26 9 minute read 5 sources

Brazil fiscal trajectory 2026: the framework, the markets, and the political constraint

Brazil enters 2026 with a credible monetary anchor but a fiscal framework that markets are testing in real time. The next eighteen months will determine whether the Arcabouco holds or whether the curve forces an earlier reckoning.

Brazil heads into the second quarter of 2026 with gross general government debt approaching 81 percent of GDP, a primary deficit that has narrowed but not closed, and a Selic rate held at restrictive levels by a Banco Central do Brasil intent on protecting hard-won inflation gains. The Arcabouco Fiscal, the spending growth rule that repla...

Energy transition 2026-04-26 12 min read 10 sources

Brazil's Green Hydrogen Northeast Cluster: From MoUs to FID

Pecem, Suape, and Acu enter the year after COP30 with a hydrogen law, a 18.3 billion BRL tax credit envelope, and roughly 50 memoranda of understanding signed since 2022, but only a handful of projects within twelve months of final investment decision.

Brazil enters 2026 with the highest paper claim on the global green hydrogen export trade. The combination of capacity factors above 55 percent for hybrid solar and wind in the Northeast, the Sao Francisco wind corridor, hydropower as a firming resource, and three deepwater ports designated as hydrogen hubs gives the country a levelized c...

Macro-financial risk 2026-04-26 12 minute read 14 sources

Brazil 2026: Lula, the Arcabouco, and Sovereign Rating Trajectory

Brazil approaches the October 2026 first round with Lula seeking a fourth term at 80, an Arcabouco Fiscal under stress, Selic at 14.25 percent, and the IBS plus CBS dual VAT entering its 2026 to 2032 transition. Sovereign rating direction depends on three calls.

Brazil heads into the October 4, 2026 first round and likely October 25 runoff with Lula da Silva, who turned 80 on October 27, 2025, declared as the PT candidate for a fourth term. Opposition runs through Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, Parana Governor Ratinho Junior, Goias Governor Ronaldo Caiado, and Minas Gerais Governor Romeu...

Food and agriculture 2026-04-26 10 minute read 10 sources

The Coffee Market Crisis 2024 to 2026: Arabica at Fifty Year Highs and the Reordering of Origin Risk

Brazilian arabica drought, Vietnamese robusta stress, and ICE futures at 4.40 dollars per pound have rewritten the cost stack for every roaster, retailer, and origin trader. The next 18 months separate the operators who repriced from those who absorbed.

Between mid 2024 and the first quarter of 2026, the global coffee complex experienced its most severe price dislocation since the 1977 frost shock. ICE arabica futures cleared 4.40 dollars per pound in late 2024, a fifty year nominal high, while London robusta traded near 4,800 dollars per tonne and the ICO Composite Indicator briefly hel...

Energy and transition economics 2026-04-26 9 minute read 5 sources

Post-COP30 Belem 2026: NDC Trajectory, Amazon Fund, and the Forest Finance Reset

Five months after the gavel fell in Belem, the Promethean and Ceres practices assess what the conference actually delivered for tropical forest finance, NDC ambition, and the carbon market architecture taking shape across 2026 to 2028.

COP30 in Belem closed in November 2025 with a partial Belem Accord, an operational Tropical Forest Forever Facility framework, and a new generation of NDCs covering roughly 78 percent of global emissions. The package was incremental rather than transformational, but it locked in three things our clients need to plan around: a credible Bra...

Trade and tariff analytics 2026-04-26 10 minute read 10 sources

EU Mercosur 2026: The Political Endgame After Montevideo

The December 2024 political agreement broke a 25 year logjam. The 2026 ratification fight will be won or lost on bifurcation, beef quotas, and whether Paris can convince Rome and Warsaw to vote down a deal that Berlin, Madrid, and Brasilia all want.

The EU Mercosur agreement, initialled at the Montevideo summit on 6 December 2024, reopened a dossier first signed in 1999 and frozen after the 2019 political accord collapsed. The 2026 ratification path now runs through a deliberate legal bifurcation: the Trade Pillar travels under Article 207 TFEU as an EU only competence, requiring qua...

Food and agriculture 2026-04-26 9 minute read 5 sources

Latin America Soybean Cycle 2026: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay

South American supply, Chinese demand, and ENSO neutrality define the 2026 to 2027 oilseed map. Ceres assesses three trade scenarios.

The 2025 to 2026 Latin American soybean cycle marks a structural reset for the global oilseed complex. Brazil is on track for a record harvest above 175 million tonnes, Argentina is rebuilding stocks after the 2023 to 2024 drought, and the Paraguay and Uruguay cluster is consolidating its role as a swing supplier to China and the European...