Brazil's Azevedo, Mexico's Blanco in duel for WTO top job

GENEVA (Reuters) - The next head of the World Trade Organization will be either Mexico's Herminio Blanco or Brazil's Roberto Azevedo, the only candidates remaining after the second of three rounds of competition to succeed Pascal Lamy, a diplomatic source said on Thursday.

Three other candidates - Indonesia's Mari Pangestu, New Zealand's Tim Groser and South Korea's Taeho Bark - were asked to withdraw from the race after not garnering sufficient support from the WTO's 159 members, the source said.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Brazil's new oil revenue law goes into effect

SAO PAULO (AP) — A new oil law that gives a greater share of royalty revenues from Brazil's vast oil fields to non-producing states has gone into effect. Producing states say they will file appeals with the Supreme Court.

The law was signed by President Dilma Rousseff Thursday night and published in the official gazette on Friday.

The new law distributes oil royalties, from existing and future drilling and production concessions, more evenly among all of Brazil's 27 states instead of favoring top oil producers such as Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Sao Paulo states.

Officials in Rio de Janeiro, the largest producing state, have said the law will deprive Rio of $1.7 billion in 2013 alone, endangering preparations for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

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Brazil's GDP grows 0.9 percent in 2012

SAO PAULO (AP) — The Brazilian government says the country's gross domestic product grew just 0.9 percent in 2012. It's the worst result since 2009, when the economy contracted 0.3 percent.

In 2011, GDP grew 2.7 percent and in 2010 it expanded 7.5 percent.

The IBGE statistics bureau says Friday on its website that the service sector posted the best performance last year, growing 1.7 percent. Industrial output dropped 0.8 percent and agricultural production fell 2.3 percent.

The IBGE says the country's GDP totaled 4.4 trillion reals ($2.2 trillion) last year, while per capita GDP amounted to 22,400 reals ($11,200).

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