Bloomberg Brazil’s ethanol producers may get a boost as the government is said to be mulling a higher gasoline tax as it looks to reduce the nation’s widening fiscal deficit. Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles is considering raising the so-called Cide tax on gasoline prices as an alternative to reinstating taxes on financial transactions, Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo …

  Bloomberg Chile’s central bank kept borrowing costs unchanged for the fifth consecutive month as inflation slowed toward the target range, while maintaining its tightening bias. Policy makers, led by central bank President Rodrigo Vergara, left the key rate at 3.5 percent on Tuesday, as forecast by all 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The pause in rates comes after two …

  Bloomberg Venezuela is offering oil at the biggest discounts in seven years as the third-largest supplier to U.S. refineries fights to defend its market share from Canadian and Middle Eastern grades. The basket of Venezuelan oil is now more than $12 a barrel cheaper than the benchmark West Texas Intermediate and has averaged a discount of $8.44 this year. …