Volkswagen said on Thursday it will lay off 900 autoworkers at two Brazilian plants, one of the biggest recent efforts to cut output in the face of sluggish demand for cars in Latin America's largest economy. Brazil is the No. 4 market for Volkswagen after China, Germany and the United States.
Ever-optimistic Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said a recent rise in consumer prices was expected, ('there's always a villain factor pushing inflation')' anticipating that in May/June the index will be lower. Mantega also denied local news reports that the government was seeking a change in the index methodology as a way to eliminate the impact of volatile food prices.
The IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere, released on Thursday in Lima, Peru, projects regional growth of 2½ percent in 2014, down from 2¾ percent in 2013. Weak investment and subdued demand for the region’s exports held back activity in 2013, as did increasingly binding supply bottlenecks in a number of economies. For 2015, the IMF projects a modest pickup, to 3%.
Brazil is investigating a potential case of atypical mad cow disease, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday, just over a year after several countries banned Brazilian beef imports when a similar case of the disease was confirmed.
Falkland Islanders that travelled on the South Atlantic air-bridge (Brize Norton-MPA and MPA-Brize Norton) on 16 and 18 April will be refunded since a non civilian-registered aircraft was involved, but will have to pay a £150 booking fee in order to support the government's policy of subsidizing air-bridge fares.