Brazilian consumers face tough choices as recession bites

The public sector deficit - the difference between what the government spends and what it receives in revenues - rose to 19.6bn reais ($5.1bn).

This was worse than expected and much higher than October's 11.5bn reais.

The government is struggling to increase tax revenues as the economy continues to shrink.

In a year Tesco sees new fall in profits

Underlying profits for the first half of its financial year were £354m, 55% down on the same period last year, when it made £779m.

TESCO

Its pre-tax profit was £74m, compared with a loss of £19m for the same period a year ago.

Like-for-like sales were down 1.1% for the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

The group warned price deflation was still having a detrimental effect.

Chief executive Dave Lewis said in a BBC interview he was "quietly confident" about Tesco's turnaround, admitting the group hit a low point at the end of last year.