Brazil's buyers beware

The country has taken steps in the right direction. But the risks are too great to ignore

Last year total foreign direct investment in Brazil reached a six-year high of $15.4bn. It was one of the strongest signals yet that measures taken by the government could soon pull Latin America's largest economy out of its worst recession in a century. The speedy recovery of Brazil's battered oil and gas industry, though, is less evident, despite important efforts to revive confidence in an industry responsible for more than 10% of gross domestic product. Efforts taken over the past year are significant. State-led Petrobras is no longer the only legal operator of production-sharing concessions in the promising deep water pre-salt area. National content rules for concession-holders are bein