Economy

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 20:39 UTC

  Fears of another foot and mouth disease outbreak in Paraguay

  

  Paraguay’ Livestock Sanitary Office has confirmed the isolation of a cattle farm in the north of the country where an apparent outbreak of foot and mouth disease has been reported. The farm is approximately 35 kilometres from the outbreak reported last September.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:41 UTC

  Brazil’s Bovespa index declined 18.1% in 2011 closing at 56.754 points

  

  In spite of a slight gain in the last trading day of 2011 the Brazilian stocks benchmark index experienced an 18.1% decline in the twelve months on concerns that Europe's debt troubles could lead to another global recession.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:30 UTC

  Brazil planning additional cuts of 32bn dollars in 2012 budget

  

  Brazil's government may cut as much as much 60 billion Reais (32 billion dollars) from spending in 2012 in an effort to control its deficit and inflation, the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported, citing unnamed Finance Ministry officials.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:21 UTC

  Saudi dairy farm buys 30.000 acres of prime land in Argentina

  

  Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company announced it was buying Argentine farm operator Fondomonte for 83 million dollars to secure access to a supply of animal feed. The acquisition will give Riyadh-based Almarai Co. control of roughly 30,000 acres of farmland just ahead of tough new limits to be imposed by Argentina's government on foreign ownership of productive land.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:15 UTC

  Argentine central bank confirms (unorthodox) growth policies for 2012

  

  Argentina's economy should expand by 4.5% to 7.5% in 2012 according to the Central bank that also warned about the threat of the consequences of the Euro crisis. The bank’s latest approved monetary program states that the policies that have helped Argentina's economy boom over the last nine years will remain largely in place.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 03:56 UTC

  Peruvian fish exports soar in volume and income: 2.8bn dollars in ten months

  

  Peruvian fish exports generated during last October generated 206.2 million dollars which represents 42.1% more than in the same month of 2010 (145.1 million), while export volume jumped 42.8% from 89.200 to 127.400 tons, the Ministry of Production reported. The increases were primarily due to higher sales of fishmeal.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 00:56 UTC

  Merkel calls for closer EU cooperation to rescue the Euro

  

  Europe must cooperate more closely if it wants the Euro to succeed as its shared currency, and it still has a long way to go to overcome its sovereign debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her New Year's Eve address.

• Saturday, December 31st 2011 - 18:28 UTC

  “Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy year!”

  

  By Nouriel Roubini (*) - The outlook for the global economy in 2012 is clear, but it isn’t pretty: recession in Europe, anemic growth at best in the United States, and a sharp slowdown in China and in most emerging-market economies.

• Friday, December 30th 2011 - 21:39 UTC

  New Spanish government announces draconian measures to balance the budget

  

  Spain's new government revealed on Friday that the public deficit for 2011 would come in at 8% of GDP, well above a target of 6%, and announced income and property tax hikes and a civil servant wage freeze in response.

• Friday, December 30th 2011 - 21:22 UTC

  Uruguay fearing inflation drastically rises basic rate 75 points to 8.75%

  

  Uruguay’s central bank unexpectedly increased on Friday its benchmark interest rate by 75 points from 8% to 8.75%o as policy makers admit inflation, and mid term expectations remain notoriously over the target range and price stability is the main concern in “the current socio-economic context”.