Venezuelan government foreign currency auction for local importers has triggered de-facto currency devaluation, the second in less than 50 days, analysts said. Venezuela has had strict currency exchange controls since 2003 in an attempt to halt capital flight, under which the government sold limited amounts of foreign currency at an official rate.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, whose Paris apartment was searched by police March 20 in a case involving businessman Bernard Tapie, retains the backing of the board of directors, an IMF spokesman said.
The US economy grew at a faster than expected 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2012, the Department of Commerce has said. The annualised figure was better than an earlier estimate of 0.1% growth, reflecting increased investments in plant and equipment.
Uruguay’s GDP expanded 3.9% last in 2012 over the previous year despite a slight contraction in the fourth quarter, according to a late Wednesday release from the Central bank. The bank’s original estimate was 4%. In 2011 the economy grew a revised 6.5%.
Argentina plans to offer suing holdout creditors a 25-year bond equal to the face value of their debt when the country defaulted in 2002, local financial daily Ambito Financiero reported on Wednesday.
The head of Italy's centre-left bloc has hit an impasse in his efforts to form a government and said only a mentally ill person would want to govern Italy now. Pier Luigi Bersani was rebuffed by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement on Wednesday.
Cyprus trucked out cash for its banks on Wednesday night to prepare them to reopen to a siege by anxious depositors, with tough controls imposed on the use of currency to avert a bank run as a result of its harsh rescue deal.
China and Brazil signed an agreement to do billions of dollars of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers work to lessen dependence on the US dollar and Euro.
African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks in 2012 have been the worst yet in Russia, with over half a million pigs having fallen victim to the disease and subsequently culled. It is hard to pinpoint causes, but lack of bio-security knowledge appears to be part of the problem which seems out of control. Surrounding countries reporting ASF to the OIE included Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and even Ukraine.
Argentina’s nationalized energy company YPF on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the local subsidiary of the US Dow Chemical to develop the shale gas deposits in the southern Nequen province.