Economy

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 23:34 UTC

  Merkel honours her mentor and Euro architect, Kohl to help discipline the party

  

  Angela Merkel is seeking help from her estranged, former mentor Helmut Kohl, architect of the Euro, to restore voter faith in the European project before next year's election.

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 22:59 UTC

  Finance minister tells Congress world crisis will not affect Argentina

  

  Finance minister Hernan Lorenzino said on Thursday that the international crisis will not affect Argentina and attributed this to the policy of drastically cutting the country’s sovereign debt which now stands at only 40% of GDP.

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 22:11 UTC

  Uruguay’s economy suffers slight deceleration in 2Q but on track to the 4% target

  

  The Uruguayan economy experienced a slight deceleration in the second quarter of this year, but with an overall positive evolution. GDP increased 0.8% over the previous quarter and 3.8% over the same quarter a year ago, according to the latest release from the Central bank.

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 05:06 UTC

  Family farmers and greens converge on Brussels to protest EU agriculture policy

  

  Farmers and activists from all over the continent converged on European Union headquarters Wednesday to push for a food policy that is fairer to family farmers and kinder to the environment and developing nations.

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 05:01 UTC

  Twisters kill five and destroy an estimated 5.000 houses in Paraguay

  

  A fierce storm packing 140-kilometer an hour winds tore across the heart of South America on Wednesday, killing five people in Paraguay and wreaking havoc in Argentina and Uruguay.

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 01:43 UTC

  Colombia rapidly becoming another “positive surprise” from Latinamerica

  

  Colombia could in few years be among the group of leading economies in the world with the highest growth rate based on positive indicators and a steady inflow of investments, according to experts from the Spanish bank during an economic forum.

• Thursday, September 20th 2012 - 01:40 UTC

  Brazil announces auctioning of new oil concessions for next May

  

  Brazil's Dilma Roussef has approved the auctioning of new oil concessions next year, subject to congressional approval of a new royalties law, authorities said. The 11th auction outside the pre-salt next May would involve 74 oil blocks, half at sea and half on land.

• Wednesday, September 19th 2012 - 21:15 UTC

  Don’t wait for the end of the EU crisis: boost trade among emerging economies, recommends Brazil

  

  Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega said that resolving Europe’s economic problems are likely to drag out over coming years due to a complex and slow process of decision-making in the region and recommended emerging economies to promote domestic consumption and trade among them.

• Wednesday, September 19th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentina Paypal-users activities limited to international payments

  

  Paypal is to prevent users in Argentina from transferring money between their own accounts. The online payment service said that from 9 October: “Argentina resident Paypal-users may only send and receive international payments.”

• Wednesday, September 19th 2012 - 06:12 UTC

  Bad debts held by Spanish banks reach 169bn Euros or 10% of total loans

  

  The value of bad debts held by Spain's banks in July rose to 169.3bn Euros, according to latest figures from the central bank. The Bank of Spain said 9.9% of banks' total loans were in arrears, up from 9.4% a month before.