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Montevideo, April 14th 2025 - 16:53 UTC

Stories for March 21st 2025

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 19:24 UTC

    Uruguay records increase in foreign visitors who also spent more

    Punta del Este recorded an increase in bookings driven by Argentine tourists having a stronger peso against the US dollar

    Uruguayan summer resorts recorded a 10.45% increase in tourist spending compared to the previous year, with 572,699 visitors entering the country. Popular destinations like Punta del Este, Piriápolis, and Barra del Chuy saw high demand, with accommodation prices soaring. Some apartments in the exclusive Punta del Este fetched up to US$ 20,000 per month. The surge was largely driven by Argentine tourists, compensating for a decline in Brazilian visitors. Montevideo's Carrasco International Airport also hit a record with 206,000 passengers.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 18:49 UTC

    Argentine province of Santa Fe on alert as number of dengue cases soars

    Dengue cases are evenly recorded all across Rosario

    The Argentine province of Santa Fe Friday reported a significant rise in dengue cases, with 598 confirmed, including 563 autochthonous, 25 imported (with patients having a travel history to places such as India, Maldives, Colombia, Brazil, and other provinces of Argentina), and 10 under investigation.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 10:55 UTC

    Boric signs Chile's pension reform into law

    Approving a reform to the AFP system “cost a lot,” Boric admitted

    Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font Thursday signed into law the new pensions reform introducing changes to the retirement mechanism in force since Augusto Pinochet Ugarte's military dictatorship (1973-1990). The new law will become effective starting in September 2025 and be fully implemented by 2035. It provides for a mixed system with contributions from workers (10%), employers (8.5%), and a new state-backed social security component, in a move to boost pensions by 14% to 35% for 2.8 million senior citizens, thus addressing the low payouts from privately-managed Pension Fund Administrators (AFPs) currently giving about half the country's retirees about US$ 350 monthly when the minimum wage stands at US$ 500.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 10:17 UTC

    Uruguay’s economy rebounded in 2024, but growth expected to slow in 2025

    The agriculture, energy, and manufacturing sectors saw the strongest performance, with energy growing by 19.6% and agriculture by 11.3%.

    Uruguay’s economy expanded by 3.1% in 2024, recovering from a severe drought the previous year, according to national accounts data released by the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU). However, economists warn that growth in 2025 is likely to return to the country's historical pace of slower expansion.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 09:33 UTC

    Argentina's main labor union announces nationwide strike for April 10

    The CGT will also march before Congress the day before alongside retirees seeking pension updates to cope with inflation

    Argentina's General Labor Confederation (CGT) announced on Thursday a nationwide strike against the Libertarian Government of President Javier Milei, which will be staged on April 10, following a demonstration the previous day. It will be the third such measure against the current administration after stoppages on Jan. 24 and May 9, 2024.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 09:32 UTC

    Argentina: Indec finds unemployment on the rise

    The lagging dollar has economic activities stagnating. Milei desperately needs a new loan from the IMF to boost the economy

    Unemployment in Argentina in the last quarter of 2024 rose to 6.4%, up 0.7 points from 5.7% in Q4 2023, but down 0.5 points from Q3 2024 (6.9%), the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec) said in a report released Thursday. Joblessness was higher in the Greater Buenos Aires area (7.1%) and lower in Patagonia (4%) while more women (6.9%) than men (6.1%) were going through that plight.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 09:25 UTC

    African woman Coventry wins IOC presidency at first try

    Until 1981 there were no female members of the IOC, the two-time gold medalist recalled

    Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry was elected Thursday as the tenth International Olympic Committee (IOC) President during the body's 144th Session in Costa Navarino, Greece. The 41-year-old former seven-time Olympic swimming medal winner will succeed Germany's Thomas

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 09:09 UTC

    Bolivia and China sign phytosanitary protocol for sorghum exports

    Sorghum is a key crop in Bolivia

    Bolivia’s Minister of Rural Development and Lands, Yamil Flores, and China’s Vice Minister of Customs, Wang Lingjun, Thursday signed in La Paz a Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements for the export of sorghum from the South American country.

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 08:57 UTC

    Brazil: STJ upholds fine against parents not vaccinating child against Covid-19

    Parental authority has a different meaning since the Constitution of 1988, the STJ ruled

    Brazil's Superior Court of Justice's (STJ) Third Panel (Turma) unanimously ruled Thursday that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against Covid-19 can be fined, upholding a decision by the Paraná state court. The court's rationale hinged around the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), which mandates child immunization.