According to the Wall Street Journal, Brazilian state-run energy giant, Petrobras, is expected to report a year-on-year decline in fourth quarter profits as it bought costlier fuel from abroad to feed strong domestic demand at home in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy. And for all the American investors who made Petroleo Brasileiro, aka Petrobras, one of the most actively traded foreign companies on a US exchange, well, they can put away their portuguese phrase books for now. Petrobras is expected to post a net profit of 9.5 billion Brazilian reais ( equivalent to $6 billion USD) in the fourth quarter, down 10% from 10.6 billion reais in the same period of 2010, according to the median estimate of seven analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. The firm has had to increase imports of expensive gasoline and diesel fuel as Brazil's booming economy boosts consumption, although higher domestic fuel prices and a jump in domestic crude oil production is expected to soften the blow.
