Brazil & Southern Cone - March 2026

BRAZIL | Petrobras posts rise in annual profit. The state-controlled oil company Petrobras released its 2025 financial results on 5 March, showing that its annual net profit for the year totalled R$110.1bn (US$19.6bn). This marks a 200.8% increase compared to the net profit of R$36.6bn registered for 2024. In a press release, the oil giant pointed to an 11% annual rise in oil and gas production as a factor that drove the significant profits for 2025, as well as highlighting that it has boosted investment particularly in exploration and production. The company’s total investments for 2025 stood at US$20.3bn, up by 22.2% compared to the previous year. Investment in projects to develop production units rose by 19.1%, from US$10.9bn in 2024 to US$13.0bn in 2025, while investment in exploration saw an even greater annual rise of 93.9%, from US$1bn in 2024 to US$2bn last year. Petrobras also attributed the higher net profit for 2025 to factors such as exchange rates, with the Brazilian real increasing in value relative to the US dollar.

CHILE | Codelco signs AI agreement with Microsoft. The state-owned mining company Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, and US multinational technology company Microsoft announced on 5 March that they signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to evaluate joint initiatives in artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, automation, and digital security. According to a Codelco press release, the agreement, which was signed by Codelco’s CEO Rubén Alvarado and Tito Arciniega, president of Microsoft Latin America, builds upon a working relationship of over 27 years between the two companies. The agreement will have an initial term of 18 months and will include “a joint governance structure to permit strategic and operational oversight for all initiatives”.

Brazil & Southern Cone: inflation rate
Percentage variation (year-on-year)

Brazil & Southern Cone: GDP growth (%)
Quarterly figures are year-on-year growth