Argentine farmers are expected to dedicate 12% more land to corn in the 2007/08 crop despite dry conditions and a shortage of seed and fertilizer, a corn producers' group said this week.
Argentina and Venezuela seem on collision course as a direct consequence of the suitcase scandal involving almost 800.000 US dollars which were to be introduced to Buenos Aires in still undisclosed circumstances by Venezuelan officials traveling in an aircraft officially chartered by Argentina's Energy company, Enarsa.
An Argentine official resigned on Thursday after a Venezuelan businessman was found carrying about 800,000 US dollars in undeclared cash on a government-chartered flight, the latest scandal to rock President Nestor Kirchner's administration.
President Nestor Kirchner promised Spain full compensation to the Spanish fishing companies torched during a July labor dispute in his home Patagonia province of Santa Cruz, plus pressing charges against those responsible, including union leaders.
Fears that the Argentine government appears to be intentionally underreporting inflation in an election year emerged again this week when the scandal plagued Statistics and Census Institute (INDEC), under judicial investigation, announced 0.5% July inflation.
According to the Big Mac index from The Economist which measures purchasing power parity, Argentina continues to climb and is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive countries in the world.
Spain's Vice president Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega called on Argentina for a stable framework of economic relations, essential to generate confidence among investors. Virtually the same words presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner faced from Spain's main businessmen during her late July visit to Madrid.
Visiting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez confirmed Monday in Buenos Aires the joint issuing with Argentina of a new sovereign South Bond and proclaimed that Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is already the president of the Argentines.
Argentina successfully tested at the beginning of July the Tronador I (Thunderer) rocket, the first step of a project to join the space race having as a target a rocket capable of sending a satellite into orbit.
The port of Mar del Plata, in the Province of Buenos Aires, began to recover its normal momentum after a 10-day blockade. Once the workers accepted the entrepreneurs' proposal on a guaranteed minimum wage and their legalised situation within a 100-day period, the fish skinning workers finally lifted their strike, and the sector's activity has resumed.