Stories for December 16th 2008

Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Ecuador announces second bond interest payment default

Ecuador announced it is defaulting on a second bond payment, interest on 650 million US dollars in Global 15 bonds due through 2015. The announcement comes three days after President Rafael Correa said the country would not make a similar 30.6 million USD payment on Global 12 bonds.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Redeployment of HMS Northumberland “no cause of alarm”

The Commander British Forces South Atlantic, Air Commodore Gordon Moulds, was quick to respond to suggestions in the British press that the Falkland Islands would be left undefended by the decision to divert the frigate HMS Northumberland to a European Union counter- piracy mission off the coast of East Africa.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Argentina bolsters size of the stimulus package to 32 b. USD

Argentina will spend the equivalent of 16.6 billion USD on infrastructure projects next year in an attempt to create 380,000 construction-related jobs it was announced Monday in Buenos Aires.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Foreign workers monopolize almost all new UK jobs

Almost all the new jobs created in Britain in the last seven years have gone to foreign workers. Of the 1.3million jobs created since 2001, the vast majority - went to non-UK nationals, official figures show. At the same time the number of UK-born workers in employment fell by 62,000.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
2008, tenth warmest year on record since 1850, says WMO

The year 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
With zero rate, further cuts not an option for the US Fed

The US Federal Reserve has slashed its key interest rate from 1% to a range of between zero and 0.25% as it battles the country's recession. In its statement, the Federal Reserve warned that “the outlook for economic activity has weakened further”.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
UK November retail inflation drops to 4.1%; deflation fears

United Kingdom consumer price index fell to 4.1% in November from 4.5% in October. As a result, the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King wrote his third letter of the year to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, explaining why inflation was so far above its target level (2%) and what the Monetary Policy Committee was planning to do to bring it back down again.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Kirchner government admits Botnia plant “does not pollute”

The administration of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner openly supported the provincial governor who declared that a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side of a jointly managed water course, --and at the heart of a bitter dispute between the neighbouring countries--, “does not contaminate”.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Uruguay: global pulp company presents strategic project

Sweden-Finland's Stora Enso paper, pulp and wood giant which, has plans to establish a plant in Uruguay has formally presented a strategic environment assessment plan as part of its forestry exploitation project.