Argentina

• Friday, December 29th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  South Africa's Standard Bank Argentine deal an attention call for competitors

  

  The planned purchase by Standard Bank – South Africa's largest private bank by assets — of most of US' Bank of America Corp.'s BankBoston Argentina assets, marks the first large investment by a foreign player in the sector since Argentina's 2001-2002 economic meltdown, and an attention call for competitors, banking sources told MercoPress.

• Friday, December 29th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentine clue witness in human rights trial reappears

  

  Minutes after Argentine President Nestor Kirchner ended a national address saying he will not be blackmailed by paramilitary groups that allegedly have kidnapped clue witnesses in human rights trials, one of them appeared safe and sound.

• Thursday, December 28th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentine banks must return 2001/02 frozen deposits

  Five years later and in a long-awaited ruling, the Argentine Supreme Court ordered local banks to reimburse in full their customers savings that were frozen during the economic crisis of 2001/02, when Argentina also defaulted on its foreign debt.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentine fisheries exports 510.000 tons in ten months

  Argentine fisheries exports (sea and fluvial; fresh and processed) during the first ten months of 2006 totaled 510.223 tons representing over a billion US dollars, according to the latest report from Senasa, Agro-food Health and Quality Service

• Tuesday, December 26th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina's international reserves set to reach 43 billion

  

  Argentina's Central Bank international reserves are set to reach 43 billion US dollars by the end of next year according to estimates from the private BBVA Banco Francés, released Tuesday in Buenos Aires.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Mrs. Kirchner with increasing chances for October 2007

  

  Argentine president Nestor Kirchner will leave office next December 2007 to concentrate on building his political force while the First Lady and Senator, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the leading candidate to succeed her, anticipated this week Congress member Carlos Kunkel from the ruling coalition

• Monday, December 25th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Italy's Gruppo Beltrame mulls steel plant in Argentina

  BUENOS AIRES — Italy's Gruppo Beltrame, Europe's fifth largest steelmaker, is considering plans to build its first plant outside Europe in Argentina at a cost of about 53 million dollars to manufacture plate for the shipbuilding sector, Río Santiago shipyard (ARS) said in a statement.

• Monday, December 25th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina determined to ban double fishing licences

  A reform of an Argentine law that would force many foreign companies to drop the fishing permits granted to them by the British-controlled Falklands/Malvinas Islands will be passed next April, Congressional sources in Buenos Aires told MercoPress.

• Wednesday, December 20th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina's recovery fuels car sales

  

  Vehicle sales in Argentina rose a healthy 17 percent to 453,000 units in January-November – the higher figure since the 455,000 sold in the entire 1998 — on the back of a steady economic recovery accompanied by a favourable international scenario, the new chairman of the ACARA concessionaires association Dante Alvarez said.

• Wednesday, December 20th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  The Economist: energy Argentina's “biggest worry”

  

  In five years Argentina's recovery from catastrophe has been “swift”, but the “biggest worry” now is energy and how long growth can continue, writes The Economist in its latest edition.