Bloomberg Brazil’s interim government is seeking a market-driven approach for the electricity industry amid waning power demand, growing debt and consecutive losses at the country’s largest power company. The administration of Acting President Michel Temer will scale back heavy-handed policies in the power industry and reduce dependence on state development bank BNDES for financing, said Paulo Pedrosa, executive secretary ...

  Venezuela / AFP Venezuelans facing severe food shortages might have been expected to welcome heavily subsidized bags of rice, milk and other staples — but the controversy didn’t take long to set in. The bags, distributed to poor families every three weeks, represent President Nicolas Maduro’s latest plan to combat the increasingly desperate economic crisis that has taken hold ...

  Beijing / AP China agreed to try to slash excess output of steel, avoid competitive devaluations of its currency and to wind down unprofitable “zombie enterprises,” US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said on Tuesday as the two countries wrapped up annual high-level meetings in Beijing. The commitment to persist with reforms to make China’s economy more balanced included specific steps ...