World trade will grow by a mere 2.5% this year, dragged down by Europe to less than half of the previous 20-year average, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Friday. WTO cut its estimate from a 2012 growth forecast of 3.7% in April and also lowered its growth forecast for 2013 to 4.5% from 5.6%.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk urged the Brazilian government in a letter sent on Wednesday to reconsider plans for protectionist tariff increases expected to hurt US exports.
Latin America’s two largest economies should be expanding rather than curbing trade flows, Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto said in veiled criticism of a Brazilian restriction on Mexican car imports.
Brazil's middle class which now numbers 104 million equivalent to 53% of total population (38% ten years ago), is likely to move 1 trillion Reais this year (approx a trillion dollars), government estimates show.
Argentina’s industrial output fell 0.8% last August when compared to the same month last year, according to the country’s stats office Indec. However it improved 0.7% when compared to July but dropped 1.2%, points out Indec Monthly Industrial Estimate
The Brazilian congress approved this week a bill which enables the opening of free shops or tax free shops, along border towns currently suffering from the massive inflow of imported goods purchased at international prices in such stores in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
Angela Merkel is seeking help from her estranged, former mentor Helmut Kohl, architect of the Euro, to restore voter faith in the European project before next year's election.
Finance minister Hernan Lorenzino said on Thursday that the international crisis will not affect Argentina and attributed this to the policy of drastically cutting the country’s sovereign debt which now stands at only 40% of GDP.
The Uruguayan economy experienced a slight deceleration in the second quarter of this year, but with an overall positive evolution. GDP increased 0.8% over the previous quarter and 3.8% over the same quarter a year ago, according to the latest release from the Central bank.
Farmers and activists from all over the continent converged on European Union headquarters Wednesday to push for a food policy that is fairer to family farmers and kinder to the environment and developing nations.