The ‘parallel’ or ‘blue’ dollar in Argentina which last week soared day after day to reach on Friday a record 9.30 Pesos, on Monday edged down four cents to 9.26 Pesos while the official ‘dollar’ remained stable at 5.13 and 5.19 Pesos (buying and selling).
The Argentine government is considering different options to contain the current skyrocketing of the US dollar, but according to the financial media there are different positions in the cabinet of President Cristina Fernandez. One of those calls for direct interventions while the other adopts a more passive attitude saying the issue is speculative and ‘marginal’.
Argentina which the IMF censured for underreporting inflation less than three months ago after three warnings over the past two years, last week authorized the deposit of 400 million dollars with the Washington-based lender to increase the nation’s access to emergency cash.
Argentina’s Federal Planning minister Julio de Vido called on Buenos Aires province mayors to defend the Cristina Fernandez government model and predicted a solid victory in the mid term legislative elections of next October.
Brazil has a big lead as the country with the most government requests to remove online content by judicial order in the latest Google Transparency Report, released last week. In the period between July and December 2012, the search giant received 1,461 court-ordered requests from governments around the world to remove content, including YouTube videos and search results, with nearly 43% of them coming from Brazilian authorities.
Argentina attended the fifth Caribbean states leaders’ summit held in Haiti April 23/26 as an observer but with a major delegation that included Foreign Affairs Secretary Ambassador Eduardo Zuaín, the different ambassadors in the region plus staff from the Political and Coperation desks.
Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium, venue for next year's World Cup final and the spiritual home of Brazilian football, has re-opened with an exhibition match despite not being fully finished.
Latin America's growing prosperity is fuelling a cancer epidemic that threatens to overwhelm the region unless governments take urgent preventive action, a study warned.
Italy's new government line-up brings together personalities from across the political spectrum, from Silvio Berlusconi's apparent successor to a crime fighter and a militant feminist from the radical party. Some of the key names of the ‘grand coalition’ members tasked with tackling the social and economic crisis in recession-hit Italy-.
Europe is expected to accelerate a shift away from its austerity-first agenda this week as the new Italian government changes course and a German-Spanish investment pact underscores a renewed focus on combating record unemployment. This comes on the background of much criticized statements from European Commission president Jose Barroso who said ‘austerity was over’.