Inflation in Argentina advanced 0.7% in February over the previous month pushed mainly by increases in the clothing sector (2.2%) and leisure activities (3.5%), according to the official Indec National Statistics Bureau. During the first two months of the year, the consumer prices index accumulated 1.5%.
Japanese stocks rebounded Wednesday as concerns over the long-term impact of Friday's earthquake and tsunami on Japan's economy ease.
Friday's earthquake and tsunami have left parts of Japan's economy frozen, but analysts forecast that it will bounce back later this year. Some of the country's leading producers, including the world's biggest carmaker, Toyota, have closed all of their plants in the country.
Arguing that the US economic recovery is on a firmer footing, and overall conditions in the labour market appear to be improving gradually, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday left interest rates unchanged at a record low of zero to 0.25% since December 2008.
Mercosur was prepared to listen to proposals on liberalizing trade, but the European Union requested more time and continue working with the negotiations, according to Mercosur delegates attending the trade talks with EU in Brussels.
Cuba devalued its convertible peso by 8% Monday to the level of parity with the US dollar as part of efforts to boost the island's flagging economy, the central bank said. Use of the convertible peso is limited to tourists and other foreigners, for Cubans who receive remittances from abroad and for export activity
A strongly worded resolution from Members of the European Parliament earlier this month outlining their concerns over agriculture does not represent a setback for EU-Mercosur trade talks, the EU chief negotiator said in Brussels.
China has ended a 110-year-long US leadership, overtaking the country as the world's top manufacturing nation in 2010, reports quoting a research report by US-based consultancy IHS Global Insight said.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, is running a series of seminars in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Near East to help governments to make informed decisions on how to respond to high food prices which are becoming increasingly destabilizing.
North Korea has accepted a team of animal health specialists from FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to assist veterinary authorities in combating outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth disease among pigs and cattle, which seem to be endemic in the country.