Chinese Conglomerate HNA said it paid US$6.5bn for the stake previously owned by Hilton's biggest shareholder Blackstone. Chinese companies have increasingly been investing in tourism-related businesses overseas as more Chinese citizens travel abroad.
Inflation forecasts for the next couple of years point to limited room for monetary easing in Brazil, the central bank said on Tuesday, suggesting it is unlikely to accelerate the pace of interest rate cuts in its November policy meeting. In the minutes of its Oct. 19 meeting, in which it cut its benchmark Selic rate by 25 basis points to 14%, the bank also said it was worried about a recent pause in the slowdown of services price rises.
A new challenge for Tierra del Fuego province and its industrial promotion scheme: the Argentina government is planning to eliminate all tariffs on the import of computers and components beginning 2017, which is estimated could cost anywhere from 4.000 to 12.000 jobs.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri promised his Uruguayan peer Tabare Vazquez to look into the draft of a Uruguay/China free trade deal, and expressed their deep concern about political events in Venezuela suggesting that under the current circumstances the Nicolas Maduro government cannot be considered a member of Mercosur.
Brazil's Petrobras and France's Total oil companies announced on Monday a strategic alliance Monday for upstream and downstream projects as President Michel Temer pronounced Brazil's troubled economy reopened for business.
Argentina’s international currency reserves rose above the landmark US$40 billion for the first time in three and a half years last Friday, as a huge inflow of dollars from government-issued debt and some exports over the last few days caused some dramatic increases this week. The milestone, according to Central Bank chief Federico Sturzenegger, was “a sign of growing investor confidence in the country.”
Uruguay is expecting some 150 cruise calls this coming season 2016/17 which begins next month and represents some 300.000 visitors, according to Tourism minister Liliam Kechichian who nevertheless admitted that growth prospects are somehow behind schedule because of the high costs of reaching and operating in the port of Buenos Aires.
Brazil's central bank cut its key interest rate for the first time in more than three years on Wednesday as a new center-right government's reforms fuel hopes of a recovery in Latin America's largest economy. The bank lowered the benchmark Selic rate by 0.25 points, to 14%, still one of the world's highest, and cited a dip in inflation and forecasts that a long recession -- Brazil's worst in a century -- is nearing its end.
A delegation from the UK embassy in Chile and a member from the Falklands Legislative Assembly met in Punta Arenas with the Magallanes region finance minister Christian Garcia to increase science and education cooperation links and promote people and economic exchanges. Many Chileans mainly from Punta Arenas have jobs in the Falklands.
Three Falkland Islands farmers and the general manager of Falklands Landholdings Corporation recently travelled to Australia as part of the ongoing search for improvements to lamb survival rates in the Falklands. Touring farms in both Queensland and New South Wales, the group spent three weeks inspecting Australian studs in search of better fat and muscle values in young rams.