US President Barack Obama reiterated on Sunday his opposition to any short-term plan to raise the US debt ceiling, while Republicans insisted on a two-step solution, a White House official said.
The head of the Argentine Rural Society, Hugo Biolcati carried out a harsh speech against the administration of President Cristina Fernandez saying it was time “to stop punishing farmlands and Argentina”.
President Barrack Obama said he would be meeting with congressional leaders, at the White House at 1100 (1500 GMT) on Saturday. On Friday Republican House Speaker John Boehner walked away from crunch debt ceiling talks with the President.
Former president Lula da Silva described as ‘nonsense’ the biblical statement that the poor will be “blessed with treasure in heaven” and strongly supported the policies of his government (2003/2010) which helped millions in Brazil lift from poverty.
The IMF confirmed that Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner phoned incoming Managing Director Christine Lagarde last week, a few hours before the Fund reiterated its objections to Argentina’s official statistical data.
The giant miner BHP Billiton announced this week a 129% increase in the mineral resource at and around Chile’s Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine.
Brazil’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest since January in spite of efforts by policy makers to cool growth and inflation in Latin America’s biggest economy. The jobless rate fell to 6.2% in June, from 6.4% in May and 7% a year earlier, the national statistics agency said in a report distributed in Rio de Janeiro.
Swedish truck-maker Scania controlled by Germany’s Volkswagen, reported second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates as orders in Brazil slowed. Net income in the quarter rose to 2.43 billion kronor (380 million USD) from 2.37 billion kronor a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
The Spanish government's enthusiasm for an European Union free-trade agreement with Mercosur remains solid and Madrid seems willing to put some sectors of agriculture at risk in exchange for access to new markets for the country's multinationals.
Euro zone leaders agreed at an emergency summit on Thursday to give their financial rescue fund sweeping new powers to help Greece overcome its debt crisis and prevent market instability from spreading through the region.