*Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a decree which authorised more funding to support businesses in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, which has been devastated by heavy storms and flooding over the past month. The decree included a new credit line totalling R$15bn (US$2.9bn) for companies affected by floods, which will be managed by the state-owned development bank (BNDES). At the event in the presidential palace in which Lula signed the decree, he said that the government was delivering on the promises it had made a month earlier. Throughout the month of May, Lula has made several visits to Rio Grande do Sul to announce measures to rebuild the state, such as the creation of a programme dubbed ‘Auxílio Reconstrução’. The programme to transfer funds to families who have lost their homes was launched when Lula signed a decree on 15 May, and the government announced that the first cash transfers were completed yesterday (30 May), benefitting 34,196 families in the state.
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