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Severe Brazilian drought may slow economic growth
SAO PAULO(Reuters) - Brazil's north-east is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydropower supplies in an area prone to blackout and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.

Lack of rain has hurt corn and cotton crops, let cattle and goats to starve to death in dry pastures and wiped about 30 percent off sugar cane production in the region responsible for 10 percent of Brazil's cane output.

Thousands of subsistence farmers have seen their livelihoods wither away in recent months as animal carcasses lie abandoned in some areas that have been seen almost no rain in two years.

"We are experiencing the worst drought in 50 years, with consequences that could to compared to a violent eathquakes," Eduardo Salles, agriculture secretary in the northeastern state of Bahia, said in an e-mailed statement.

Dams in the Northeast ended December at just 32 percent of capacity, according to the national electrical grid operator. That puts them below the 34 percent the operator, known as ONS, considers sufficient to guarantee electricity supply.

As reservoir levelss fell, state-controlled Petrobras imported nearly four times more liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the first nine months of 2012, a backup for hydropower generation that has hurt the firm's profits.

The low water levels have set off alarm bells in a country with a history of energy shortages that crimped economic growth as recently as a decade ago.

President Dilma Rousseff dismissed talk of an energy crisis on Dec. 27, calling the idea of Brazil potentially needing to ration energy "ridiculous."

However, there have been some signs of strain already. In October, the Northeast experienced its worst blackout in more than a decade, knocking Bahia state's important petrochemical industry offline.

A spokesperson at Brazil's agriculture ministry said the federal government has not calculated the financial cost or the loss to crops expected from the drought. However, the ministry is trying to mitigate the economic impact by making additional lines of credit available to small farmers, the official said.

Crop supply agency Conab is also sending corn to the region in hopes of saving livestock.

Bahia state officials, however, said the measures were not enough and on Dec. 30 asked for more federal resources to help about 20 million people living in the semi-arid tropical region stretching north from Minas Gerais state.

"The last comparable drought in the region was in the early 1980...even if rains come in the next few days it's not going to make a difference for some areas," said Celso Oliveira, a meteorologist with Sao Paulo-based Somar.

The states that have received the least rainfall are Bahia, Brazil's fourth most populous state, Pernambuco, whose capital Recife is one of 12 host cities for the 2014 soccer World Cup and an important port, and Piaui, Oliveira said.


Mahindra unveils 2 motorcycle models
MUMBAI (Bloomberg) - Mahindra & Hahindra Ltd., India's biggest sport-utility vehicle maker, unveiled two motorcycle models as it plans to reenter the market two years after withdrawing its debut model because of a flawed gearbox.

The company will introduce the Centruro and Pantero models with 110cc engines, it said, without saying when the models will go on sale or how much they would cost. Mahindra introduced the Stallio in September 2010 and withdrew it in 2011 after discovering the gearbox glitch, The Economic Times reported at the time.

Mahindra began making scooters in 2008 after buying Kinetic Motor Co. to increase sales in the world's second-biggest two-wheeler market, where the vehicles outsell cars more than seven-to-one. Indian two-wheeler sales grew 4 percent to 9.24 million units in the eight months through November, compared with a 1.3 percent increase in passenger car sales, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.


South Africa's borrowing costs set to climb
CAPE TOWN (Bloomberg) - South Africa's borrowing costs are set to climb from record lows at the first bond auction of the year as investors fret about rising supply of long-term debt.

The government will auction 2.1 billion rand ($243 million) of bonds maturing in 2031 and 2048 on Tuesday. Yields on the 2048 debt climbed 15 basis points since the last sale on Dec. 11, when they were the lowest since the securities were first sold in June. Yields on similar-maturity debt from Brazil dropped six basis points in the period to 3.98 percent.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is extending the maturity of South Africa's debt to reduce short-term repayment risk as Fitch Ratings prepares to review the nation's credit rating this month following downgrades by two other companies last year.

Yields rose Jan. 4 after the U.S. Federal Reserve Boad said it is debating when to end bond purchases that have fueled demand for riskier assets.

"Foireign participation in our market has been disproportionately concentrated in the belly and longer end of the curve, which leaves us vulnerable to a change in sentiment," Mohammed Nalla, head of strategic research at Nedbank Group Ltd., said by phone from Johannesburg on Jan. 4. "The key risk is the potential for a downdrade from Fitch."

Foreign investors bought a net 2.7 billion rand of South African bonds in the first two days of this year, according to JSE Ltd., which operates the stock and bond exchanges. That added to record purchases of 93.4 billion rand in 2012, which helped drive yields on the benchmark 6.75 percent bonds due March 2021 to a record low of 6.34 percent on Dec. 21. They rose 5 basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 6.48 percent as of 5:16 p.m. on Friday.

Foreigners now own 36 percent of the nation's local-currency debt, according to calculations by analyst Michael Grobler at Afrifocus Securities Ltd. in Cape Town, up from 29 percent at the end of March.

Longer-maturity bonds have underperformed short-term debt since August after the central bank cut interest rates to boost a flagging economy. They yield difference between the two-year notes and securities maturing in 2031 has widened 11 basis points to 250 since the previous auction as long-term yields rose more than shorter-maturity rates.

Last year, the Treasury auctioned 102.9 billion rand of bonds with maturities of longer than 12 years, accounting for 58 percent of sales, compared with 51 percent in 2011, according to a Dec. 11 research note by Johannesburg-based ETM Analytics.

The average maturity of government debt is set to climb above 12 years, compared with 10.9 years in 2011, according to caluculations by Grobler at Afrifocus.

The government will continue selling long-term debt while there's demand from investors, according to Adriaan du Toit, a fixed-income analyst at Johannessburg-based Standard Bank Group Ltd. The Treasury probably sees refinancing risks in the short-term funding, he said.


China to boost urban transport as traffic congestion worsens
BEIJING (Bloomberg) - China pledged to relieve pressure on the nation's congested roads by supporting the development of environmentally friendly urban transport systems and encouraging measures that may include a ban on parking in some areas.

The govenment will provide tax breaks and fuel subsidies for mass transit vehicles and increase the use of special lanes to help boost the use of public transport to about 60 percent of all urban travel, according to a statement by the State Council, or Cabinet, posted on the central government's website Saturday.

As many as 300 million of China's 1.4 billion people will move from the countryside by 2030 to join the 600 million already living in cities, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. Traffic congestion and worsening pollution is forcing the government to improve urban public transport to cope with the influx.

"As China's urbanization accelerates, the development of urban transport faces new challenges," the State Council said. The government "must prioritize the development of public transit systems to ease traffic congestion, transform urban transport, improve people's quality of life and improve the provision of public services," according to the document.

Li Keqiang, No.2 in the ruling Communist Party's hierarchy, is championing urbanization as a new growth engine that will boost incomes and consumption. The focus on improving public transport comes as the government faces growing discontent over pollution that is caused partly by surging car ownership.

The number of private passenger vehicles in China was 62.4 million at the end of 2011, a sevenfold increase on the 8.45 million at the end of 2003, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. The number of cars may surpass 200 million by 2020, the official Xinhua News Agency reported in July last year, citing the Transport Ministry.

Saturday's statement fleshes out a broad policy guideline issued in October to support the transport goals in the nation's current five-year plan which runs through 2015.

The State Council said it aims to make public services the "dominant" form of transport in urban areas and boost the use of electric vehicles such as buses and street cars in addition to rail transit. It will also encourage the development of smart cards and mobile payment systems.

Initiatives such as increasing the use of vehicle rental and better taxi-booking facilities will be supported, it said. In downtown areas, ...