The European Parliament backed plans to take “high and upper-middle income” countries out of the bloc’s tariff preference system, the House informed on Wednesday following a vote on the issue.
On June 7 the Argentine government presented a bill to require debt and new contracts are denominated in pesos, while the government is mulling the de-dollarisation of real estate contracts. This would make real estate purchases even more difficult than they currently are in a country with ever-tightening capital controls.
In an attempt to recover the political initiative and sliding opinion polls Argentine President Cristina Fernández announced the launching of an ambitious housing program aimed at building 400.000 homes in the next four years.
Action to save the Euro is required in “more shortly than three months,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an interview to CNN. The IMF chief response came after a reporter pressured the official to access billionaire investor George Soros’ remarks that Euro leaders had three months to save the Euro.
Moody's Investors Service decided to slash the long-term rating of Spanish oil company Repsol after the Argentine government seized 51% stake of Argentina based YPF, formally run by Repsol.
The amount of additional money Brazil plans to contribute to the IMF will depend on commitments to bolster the influence of emerging-market nations at the global lender, a senior Brazilian government official said on Tuesday.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez pledged Tuesday to make an upcoming 2.2 billion dollars Boden 2012 bond payment in US dollars, rejecting recent speculation that the government would try to pay some or all of its foreign-currency-denominated debt in Argentine pesos.
Stimulus measures enacted by policymakers in recent months should soon lead to a pickup in growth, breathing some life into Brazil after three straight quarters of stagnation, said central bank president Alexandre Tombini. However he warned about two years of slow global growth and markets volatility.
Venezuela has taken the Unasur secretary general post from Colombia during a ceremony last Monday held in Bogotá with the attendance of Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and his Paraguayan counterpart Fernando Lugo.
The newly-formed Pacific Alliance bloc seems more like a political club to counterbalance the Atlantic-facing, Brazil-led Mercosur group. However, the bloc accounts for 30% of India’s trade with Latin America. Can India engage the group so it is not left out from their Asia focus?