Argentina Economy Minister Nicolas Dujovne is due to meet on Thursday with IMF chief Christine Lagarde to request a financing package to help shore up the struggling economy, officials said. Dujovne will also meet with a senior US Treasury official in a key step in the talks with the IMF, which are likely to last six weeks, his spokesman said in a statement.
United Kingdom ministers are unilaterally considering stopping EU access to the Galileo satellite earth station in the Falklands and Ascension, according to reports in the UK press. The move comes after Brussels chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, stated that UK companies would have to be excluded from the development of sensitive Galileo infrastructure following Brexit due to security concerns.
After several days up in Argentina, the devaluation of the Argentine peso and the rise of the US dollar have had some impact on the other side of the River Plate, where the exchange houses of downtown Montevideo marked on Wednesday the value of the currency up to 31,70 Uruguayan pesos per dollar, a rise of 2.08% compared to Monday —the highest in five years—. For the Uruguayan government, the country follows the global trend and calls for calm, beyond the noise generated in Argentina, which is beginning a dialogue between the Finance Minister, Nicolás Dujovne, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.
Joaquim Barbosa, a former chief justice on Brazil's Supreme Court with anti-corruption credentials, said on Tuesday he would not run for the presidency in October, despite a growing clamor for his candidacy. Barbosa, the first and only black member of the high court, had in recent weeks positioned himself as a potential center-left candidate. He was attractive to many because of his clean image and background as a judge who battled corruption.
Western powers, Russia and China remain committed to the Iran nuclear deal - after the US announced it was withdrawing from the agreement. The UK, France and Germany say they will work with all remaining parties and urged the US not to obstruct its implementation and the other signatories to the 2015 deal - Russia and China - have also stressed their continuing support.
A Dundee-based charity has succeeded in its epic mission to declare a sub-Antarctic island rodent-free for the first time since humans arrived more than 200 years ago. In 2011, the South Georgia Heritage Trust started the world’s largest project to remove the invasive rats and mice to save South Georgia’s wildlife, including threatened pipits and pintails.
Farm equipment manufacturers in Brazil are expecting g on strong sales this year, boosted by a second straight bumper soy crop and rising grain prices, which will more than offset weakness in the sugar cane sector, they said at a major trade show. Some machinery producers are forecasting sales growth as high as 8% in 2018 as farmers’ confidence rises and record-low interest rates encourage them to borrow and invest.
Argentina asked the International Monetary Fund for financing to help stem a run from the Peso to the US dollar that is sparking a surge in interest rates and threatening to derail the country's economic recovery. The sum requested is estimated between 25 and 30bn dollars, 500% Argentina's IMF quota and could be disbursed in two forms, a flexible credit line or a precautionary credit line.
The United Kingdom's International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, named a new Trade Commissioner to champion British trade with Latin America and the Caribbean, as the UK prepares for future trade agreements with countries around the world.
The dollar hovered near a four-month high on Tuesday, continuing to draw support from higher Treasury yields and upbeat prospects for the U.S. economy, leaving its major rivals such as the Euro struggling and other Latin American currencies including the Argentine peso down sharply.