The Bank of England on Thursday voted to keep its main interest rate at 0.5% following a monetary policy meeting, the last for departing Governor Mervyn King. The BoE also decided against creating more cash under its Quantitative Easing (QE) program that is aimed at boosting growth amid Britain's fragile economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund admitted it had to lower its normal standards for debt sustainability to bail out Greece, and its projections for the Greek economy may have been overly optimistic.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that the Euro-area economy will return to growth by the end of the year, handing policy makers a reason to hold back fresh stimulus. Draghi spoke after the ECB Governing Council in Frankfurt left its main refinancing rate at 0.5% after reducing it by a quarter points last month.
Argentina’s energy imports during April soared 47.6% over a year ago reported the government mainly because of massive natural gas purchases for the coming winter. The bill in April climbed to 733 million dollars from 384 million a year ago, while Enarsa the government corporation that has the monopoly of LNG imports spent 438 million this year and 259 million in April 2012.
The powerful Brazilian National Confederation of Industry, CNI said that the country and its Mercosur partners will end ‘isolated’ if they don’t actively look for alternative trade accords, as is being done by other Latam countries.
Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) reported Thursday the completion of a 3D survey over its Southern Area licenses offshore the Falkland Islands. FOGL said the survey aimed to target a number of prospects and leads immediately to the west and northwest of the Darwin condensate discovery.
The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) reported to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM XXXVI) last week and as in previous years, in addition to presenting statistics and estimates of numbers for next season, IAATO reported on the Association’s recent work and activities. This year, there was a heavy focus on the collaborative work that IAATO has undertaken with Treaty Parties and other Observers and Experts in a variety of fields.
The General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), meeting in Guatemala adopted the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Related Forms of Intolerance and the Inter-American Convention against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance and opened them for signature.
Francis has denounced what he called a “culture of waste” in an increasingly consumerist world and said throwing away good food was like stealing from poor people.
Brazilian authorities said they had smashed a ring of narco-traffickers said to have shipped drugs hidden in frozen fish to Europe. Eleven members of the drug and money laundering network, based in Brazil and with connections in Colombia, Portugal and Spain were arrested between last Friday and Tuesday and 5 million dollars worth of goods seized, prosecutors said.