Economy

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:38 UTC

  WTO deal on government buying, opens 100bn dollars of government contracts

  

  The World Trade Organization reached on Thursday a landmark reform on its Government Procurement Agreement, opening 100 billion dollars of government contracts to foreign competition and paving the way for more countries, including China, to join the pact.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:35 UTC

  IMF warns no economy in the world will be immune to the crisis unfolding

  

  The world economic outlook is “quite gloomy” and will require action by all countries, starting with those in Europe, to head off an escalating crisis that carries risks of a global depression, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:32 UTC

  Fitch downgrades the credit rating of the world’s six largest banks

  

  Fitch announced on Thursday it has downgraded the credit rating of six of the world’s largest banks. The banks include US’ Bank of America, British Barclays, and France’s BNP Paribas.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:30 UTC

  FDI in Brazil jumped four times since 2005 totalling 661bn; US main investor

  

  Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil expanded fourfold between 2005 and last year, from 162.8 billion to 660.5 billion dollars, the country’s central bank said on Thursday.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:13 UTC

  Argentine economy roaring at 9.3% in third quarter, announced CFK

  

  Argentina’s economy expanded in the third quarter at the fastest pace since 2003, said President Cristina Fernandez on Thursday during a visit to a Toyota Motor Corp. plant in the province of Buenos Aires

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 20:59 UTC

  Astori anticipates investment grade and the white list for Uruguay in 2012

  

  Vice president Danilo Astori anticipated that in 2012 Uruguay will recover investment grade and said that including Uruguay in the OECD “grey list” was a “tremendous injustice” which did not take into account all the advances achieved in combating money laundering and narcotics trade.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 19:53 UTC

  Argentina bullying Uruguay on canal dredging and Falkland Islands flagged vessels

  

  Uruguay has banned the docking of Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessel in the port of Montevideo, following on complaints from Argentina that several fishing vessels with that flag, in recent months had been operating from Montevideo.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 18:03 UTC

  After dismal year Brazilian industry expects modest recovery in 2012

  

  Brazilian industry saw 1.8% growth this year, well below expectations, and expansion will be limited to 2.3% in 2012 due to a global economic slowdown, a business group said this week.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 15:37 UTC

  Brazil decides full support for the (development) Bank of the South

  

  The administration of President Dilma Rousseff will be sending the bill creating the Bank of the South to congress next month, since this financial institution “will help the region address the global crisis”.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 03:50 UTC

  Uruguay meat exports reach 1.5 billion dollars in eleven months

  

  In eleven months of 2011 Uruguayan meat exports jumped 21% in value compared to the same period a year ago, totalling 1.505 billion dollars and 373.548 tons according to the latest release from the country’s National Meat Board (INAC).