Economy

• Thursday, January 9th 2014 - 06:59 UTC

  Most Fed members agreed on December's stimulus reduction, indicate minutes

  

  Federal Reserve members mostly agreed about a reduction in the central bank's stimulus efforts in December, meeting minutes released Wednesday reveal. The central bank announced a $10bn a month reduction in its bond buying program at the end of its December meeting.

• Thursday, January 9th 2014 - 06:43 UTC

  Exporters on high alert as strikes hit Chile’s ports once again

  

  Stoppages spread across Chile as workers claim they are owed thousands of dollars in compensation agreed to in resolution to strikes last year. Fruit exports in Central Chile and copper shipments in the North have been stalled as workers from several major ports across the country have gone on strike, raising fears the export-oriented economy could see a repeat of last year's strikes which lasted three weeks and cost millions of dollars.

• Thursday, January 9th 2014 - 06:35 UTC

  People living in Buenos Aires shanty towns increased 52% in ten years

  

  The number of people living in shanty towns or “misery villages” in Argentina and particularly in the capital Buenos Aires keeps increasing despite a decade of sustained growth at almost Chinese rates. According to data from the latest census of 2010, the number of people living in 'misery villages' in Buenos Aires was 163.587 compared to the 107.422 in 2001, with a 52% increase.

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 05:58 UTC

  Germany's Wintershall joins Patagonia's Vaca Muerta shale gas and oil rush

  

  Germany's Wintershall signed on Tuesday a farm-in contract with the Argentine Patagonia province of Neuquén to explore Vaca Muerta’s shale gas and oil field. Under the terms of the joint-venture agreement Wintershall together with Gas & Petroleo de Neuquen will explore and develop the Aguada Federal block and are committed to invest 80 million Euros.

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 05:39 UTC

  IDB loans, guarantees and grants totaled nearly 14bn dollars in 2013

  

  According to preliminary data, in 2013 the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, approved 167 financing packages worth some 14 billion dollars, a figure surpassed only by that of 2009, when the Bank´s financing hit a 15.9bn in response to the global economic crisis.

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 05:34 UTC

  When talking fuel, Mexico and Argentina the better off; Colombia and Uruguay bottom of the list

  

  Taking as reference the ratio between the average salary and the price of gasoline in six Latam countries, Mexican and Argentine consumers are the better off when it comes to filling up the tank while for Uruguay and Colombia the ratio is the least favorable.

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 05:28 UTC

  Record car sale in Argentina in 2013, but 2014 is full of uncertainties because of new taxes

  

  The registry of new cars in Argentina soared 13.5% last year establishing a record of 955.203 vehicles, compared to 2012, and also above the 860.000 units of 2011, which was the standing record, according to the Argentine association of automobile dealers, ACARA.

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 05:00 UTC

  US dollar climbs to new record in Argentina: 10.90 Pesos

  

  The newly appointed Argentine Central bank chairman Juan Carlos Fábrega strategy to make the money exchange markets converge does not seem to be working: on Tuesday the 'blue' or parallel dollar soared to a new record, 10.85 and 10.90 Pesos, while the gap with the official rate again climbed to almost 60%.

• Tuesday, January 7th 2014 - 23:28 UTC

  JP Morgan will pay 1.7bn dollars penalty related to Bernard Madoff's fraud

  

  JPMorgan Chase & Co will pay a 1.7 billion dollars penalty to settle charges by US federal authorities that the bank failed to report suspicious activity relating to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

• Tuesday, January 7th 2014 - 06:09 UTC

  Main threat to world economy in 2014 is not the Euro-zone but China, says Soros

  

  George Soros says stop worrying about the Euro-zone and look at the slower growth in China. The hedge fund boss, who built his fortune betting on the world’s money markets, is concerned that twenty years of rapid growth is about to run out of steam.