Uruguay president José 'Pepe' Mujica was again ironic in praising Argentines when he stated that the Argentine population is capable of eluding the Pope and even the United Nations in their quest to buy US dollars and get them out of the country, in spite of current exchange controls.
Paraguay and Mexico have made significant advances in reaching a trade agreement in the framework of the Latinamerican Integration Association, ALADI, according to Paraguayan diplomatic sources.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde has once more requested that Argentina present economic figures based on trustworthy and credible numbers and statistics.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy apologised on Thursday for mishandling a major corruption scandal, but denied he or his conservative People's Party, PP, accepted illegal payments and rejected opposition calls to step down.
Brazil's twelve-month public sector primary budget surplus widened in June amid a robust surplus from state and local governments, helping bring the country's nominal deficit slightly narrower.
Several Argentine opposition groups have started publishing their own GDP index, (as they do with inflation) based on the average of data processed by private consultants which are exposed to the intimidation of President Cristina Fernandez administration officials.
Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has left interest rates at 0.5%. The key borrowing rate has been at that level since March 2009. MPC also said it would make no change to the £375bn of monetary stimulus it is providing through its quantitative easing program (QE).
The European Central Bank left interest rates at a record low 0.5% on Thursday and said that they will remain there for some while to come and could yet fall further. ECB President Mario Draghi hinted that policy would not be tightened until well into next year at the earliest, although the central bank will give no time horizon for when rates might move.
Uruguay extended for another twelve months the VAT bonus for those tourists who pay for purchases, lodging and rents with debit cards. The measure was announced this week by Deputy cabinet chief Diego Canepa following a full ministerial meeting and in anticipation of the coming 2013/14 summer season.
Argentina's unemployment rate fell to 7.2% in the second quarter of 2013 compared with 7.9% in the first quarter of the year, President Cristina Fernandez announced during a speech praising her government’s industrialization and added-value policies.