Two major mining companies, Barrick Gold and Collahuasi, both plan to dramatically increase investments in their northern Chile gold and copper operations despite rising inflation and increased production costs.
Moody's Investor Services has cut its outlook on Japan's credit rating to negative from stable citing concerns about debt levels. Moody's currently rates Japan's government debt at an Aa2 level.
Argentine Industry Ministry officials assured Wednesday that non-automatic licenses currently being applied to imports “in no way represent an obstacle for our Mercosur partners” and they have been implemented to monitor imports from outside the region.
Surging oil prices due to political turmoil in the Middle East spell very, very big challenges for airlines, said International Air Transport Association chief Giovanni Bisignani on Wednesday.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange and Brazil's BM&F Bovespa signed this week an agreement that could lead to closer ties between the two. Bovespa said it was looking for cross-listing across both exchanges, although this would not happen immediately.
Switzerland’s largest insurer, Zurich Financial Services, has agreed to pay as much as 2.1 billion US dollars for 51% of Banco Santander’s insurance business in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.
Trying to calm turbulent oil markets, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister said on Tuesday that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was ready to pump more oil to compensate for any drop-off caused by unrest in the Middle East.
The president of Brazil’s private bank Itau brushed aside risks of a credit bubble in the country and underlined that sustained economic growth will be rewarded by an expansion of between 15% and 20% in its credit portfolios in 2011.
Beef quotas being sought by the Mercosur countries as part of the ongoing negotiations with the EU were simply not acceptable, said Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith.
Argentina's Pan American Energy will sign a deal later this month to buy Exxon Mobil local downstream unit Esso, turning the company into a fully integrated oil and gas producer. Pan American Energy is a unit of Bridas Corp., which is jointly owned by Argentina's Bulgheroni family through Bridas Energy Holdings and China's Cnooc Ltd.