Sugar-cane fuel wins in Brazil as cheap ethanol beats petrol

Sao Paulo

BRAZIL's economic and political crises are proving to be a boon to one of the nation's most embattled sectors: ethanol producers.

Drivers, who used to switch between ethanol and petrol depending on the price gap, are now just going for the cheaper, less-efficient ethanol as they try to cut short-term spending amid a battle with inflation as high as 10.7 per cent, rising unemployment and an economy contracting at the fastest pace in a century. That's helping keep ethanol prices at a record high for more than three months.