Briefly

BRAZIL

Voters go to polls amid tight presidential race

Brazilian voters were going to the polls on Sunday in a tense election to choose between reelecting far-right President Jair Bolsonaro or returning leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to office. The tight race offered a second chance for both candidates. Bolsonaro vowed to consolidate a sharp conservative turn in Brazilian politics after a presidency marred by the pandemic. Lula promised more social and environmental responsibility, recalling the rising prosperity of his 2003-10 presidency, before corruption scandals tarred his Workers Party.

JAPAN

Cabinet approves plan to counter inflation

Japan's cabinet approved on Friday a hefty economic package including 29 trillion yen ($200 billion) in government spending to counter the blow to household budgets from inflation, signaling that the greater concern of its policymakers is that the economy will stall, not overheat. While central banks around the world are raising interest rates aggressively to try to tame decades-high inflation, Japan has stuck mainly to using fiscal measures, or government spending, to counter that challenge. In the US, the Federal Reserve has been raising borrowing costs to combat inflation.

Agencies Via Xinhua