
In what is seen as another step of Argentina’s noose-tightening of the Falkland Islands’ economy and development, the Buenos Aires Province Senate passed a law on Thursday banning British flagged vessels from calling at Argentina’s largest province ports.

Federal Planning Minister Julio de Vido announced that several members of the Argentine Government would be flying to China in September in order to close several cooperation agreements between Chinese oil companies and YPF, intended to deepen the bilateral relations.

Argentina acknowledged the slowing down of the economy as the result of the global crisis, prolonged drought and a lesser growth rate from Brazil, according to a report from the Central Bank released this week.

Industry Minister Debora Giorgi said that Argentina is on track to become, in the short term, the fourth largest producer of poultry meat. According to the Industrial Strategic Plan 2020, the sector achieved in less than a decade exports of 600.000 tons per year.

The Argentine foreign ministry confirmed in a release that it had delivered an official protest to the United Kingdom repudiating “the profanation of the monument” in Darwin, Falkland Islands, to the memory of the Argentine combatants killed during the 1982 Malvinas war.

The rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Monday that local governments in Argentina are experiencing slower economic growth, high inflation, and difficulties financing their 2012 budget deficits.

Argentine construction activity in Argentina during June dropped for the third consecutive month compared to a year ago. The drop was 1.5% according to the Construction Activity Synthetic Index (ISAC) from the country’s stats office, Indec.

Brazilian president DIlma Rousseff said that with the incorporation of Venezuela, Mercosur has become a global power in food and energy and becomes the fifth world economy with a GDP of 3.3tn dollars.

After attending the Mercosur extraordinary meeting in Brasilia, President Cristina Fernández and her Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, signed a cooperation agreement to develop a strategic energy plan between state oil companies YPF and PDVSA.

Argentina repudiated the ‘profanation’ of the hermitage at the Darwin cemetery in the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, which holds the graves of Argentine combatants who lost their lives during the 1982 conflict.