Argentina's central bank left the basic interest rate unchanged at 27.5%, a clear signal that inflation remains the main challenge of the country's monetary policy. The bank also revealed that last week it intervened in the local market with 400 million dollars to keep the US dollar in the range of 20/20,50 Pesos to the greenback.
Brazil will harvest 87.28 million tons of corn in the 2017-18 season, federal government crop agency Conab said in a monthly report, down from 88 million tons in its February report. The 2016-17 harvest was 97.84 million tons.
A controversial visit and meeting of two branches of government, on Saturday, was reported in the Brazilian media. In effect last Saturday afternoon president Michel Temer made a visit to the head of the Federal Supreme Tribunal Carmen Lucia at her residence, and was not conducted as part of the President’s official schedule.
January is summer month in Argentina, equivalent to July in the northern hemisphere, and Argentines love to take to the beaches or travel overseas. This last January, according to the official stats office, Indec, the number of arrived tourists in Argentina increased 8.7% compared to a year ago, but Argentines tourists overseas jumped 20.5%., most probably on the back of a particularly strong Peso vis-a-vis the US dollar.
As Pope Francis marks the fifth year of his papacy next week, the pontiff once hailed as a fearless reformer is under fire for his handling of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church. Since taking over in March 2013, the 81-year-old Argentine has championed the cause of the marginalized, saying he wanted a “poor church for the poor” and shunning papal palaces and ostentatious displays of wealth.
Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, died early Wednesday, a University of Cambridge spokesman said. He was 76 years old. Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge, England.
The Argentine government has announced it plans to invest 15 billion Argentine Pesos (some US$ 750 million) in an ambitious expansion of the country's main international airport, Ezeiza, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires city.
Argentine former deputy foreign minister and ambassador before the United Nations, Fernando Enrique Petrella has been appointed head of the country's Foreign Service Institute, ISEN, according to Decree 176/2018.
On six continents around the globe, the currently 53 countries of the Commonwealth marked Commonwealth Day earlier in the week. The day included messages to the Commonwealth from Her Majesty the Queen as well as the UK Prime Minister, both of which have been covered by MercoPress. However, the Falkland Islands also reaffirmed its ties to the Commonwealth over recent days both within the Islands and elsewhere in the world.
Rex Tillerson was fired as secretary of State on Tuesday, ending a tumultuous tenure as America's top diplomat that was marked by a series of public disagreements with his boss — President Donald Trump.