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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, May 9th 2025 - 14:21 UTC

Stories for March 2025

  • 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.

  • Thursday, March 20th 2025 - 20:03 UTC

    Amazon railroad project faces ballooning costs and environmental concerns

    Ferrogrão solves no logistical issues while creating significant problems instead

    New data provided by researchers from the University of São Paulo, the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and environmental groups like the Climate Observatory showed that the Ferrogrão railroad, a 933-kilometer project linking Mato Grosso’s grain-producing region to Atlantic ports, could cause significantly greater environmental damage than previously estimated. The study criticizes the government’s feasibility analysis, conducted under former President Jair Bolsonaro, for underestimating deforestation risks and cumulative impacts, especially in the Amazon rainforest and indigenous areas.

  • Thursday, March 20th 2025 - 13:37 UTC

    Bolivia's oil supply from bad to worse

    Tumiri urged protesters to allow passage

    A lorry carrying crude oil from Chile to Bolivia for refining overturned in Lauca National Park, Arica, Chile, spilling approximately 10,000 liters of oil, thus causing significant environmental contamination. Firefighters initially contained the spill, but damage to flora and fauna is still being assessed by Chile's National Forestry Corporation (Conaf).

  • Thursday, March 20th 2025 - 11:26 UTC

    Brazil: Haddad says Selic adjustment stemmed from Campos Neto era

    The measure was heavily criticized by Congressman Farias

    After Brazil Central Bank's (BCB) Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) raised Wednesday the benchmark Selic interest rate from 13.25% to 14.25% annually, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad warned that such a move had been planned since December under former BCB President Roberto Campos Neto, who had been appointed during the Jair Bolsonaro years.

  • Thursday, March 20th 2025 - 10:51 UTC

    Argentina's Lower House greenlights Milei's IMF emergency decree

    Most lawmakers “understood the mandate of the ballot boxes,” Casa Rosada said after the outcome

    Argentina's Lower House Wednesday gave its nod to President Javier Milei's Emergency Decree (DNU) clearing the way for further borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reinforce Central Bank reserves and manage debt by 129 votes in favor, 108 against, and 6 abstentions with endorsements from the ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA) as well as other parties, such as PRO, UCR, Coalición Cívica, Innovación Federal, Producción y Trabajo, and a group of Encuentro Federal lawmakers. Opposition came primarily from the Peronist Unión por la Patria (UxP), leftwing groups, and other minor factions.