LatinNews Daily - 2 January 2025

*Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a decree to raise the minimum monthly wage to R$1,518 (US$246), up 7.5% on the current monthly minimum wage. This marks the third time that Lula has decreed an increase in the minimum wage since he began his current term at the start of January 2023. According to a government press release, the calculation for the 7.5% wage rise was based on the 2.5% maximum limit on the real increase of the government’s primary expenditure, as set in the current fiscal framework, and the INPC consumer price index released by the national statistics institute (Ibge), the annual figure for which stood at 4.84% as of November 2024.