Falkland Islands Councillor and Director of Quark Fishing Ltd., Michael Summers, was in the Stanley Magistrate's court today, Wednesday, to hear his legal representative, Hugh Ferguson of Ledingham Chalmers, petition for a further adjournment of cases against his company, which first came to court on 13th October.
The United States Federal Reserve Open Market Committee rose this Wednesday its key federal funds rate by 25 points to 2%, the fourth increase since last June. Although markets were expecting such a move it's the highest since November 2001 when the Fed stated to lower rates in an effort to contain the effects of an incipient recession and the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Chile's agricultural and forestry exports totalled $5.67 billion US dollars during the first nine months of this year, a 24% over the same period in 2003, reported the Agriculture Studies and Policies Office, Odepa.
ENAP, Chile's government owned oil company managed a consolidated profit equivalent to 145,3 million US dollars during the first nine months of 2004, but because of the strong appreciation of the Chilean currency against the US dollar, profits were actually 28,5% less than in the same period of 2003 (203,3 million US dollars).
Chilean Finance minister Nicolas Eyzaguirre forecasted that if Chile sustains the average 5,5% growth of the last fifteen years, per capita income will reach 20,000 US dollars by 2020, but he also warned about the unfair distribution of wealth and insufficient educational opportunities.
Indigenous mapuche communities in Argentine Patagonia rejected a donation of 2,500 hectares from the Benetton brothers arguing that the disputed lands are theirs by ancestral rights.
Thirty miles north of Punta Arenas, a private farm with support from the Chilean Development and Promotion Corporation is involved in a project to increase sheep farming profits basically by improving cross breeding and lambing.
China's industrial production slowed during October, a sign which was greeted with relief by Beijing authorities who are trying to take steam from the seventh world economy but the fastest growing.
The US dollar dropped Wednesday to a new record low breaking the 1,30 benchmark with no immediate prospects of a rebound according to European analysts who fear US trade and fiscal imbalances and have doubts about the strength of the economy's recovery.
The Foreign Secretary has issued the following statement: