Economy

• Tuesday, July 10th 2012 - 05:19 UTC

  “Activity level has dropped” says Argentine industrial union chief

  

  The head of the Argentine Industrial Union, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, admitted that “it's clear that the activity level has dropped,” and warned that “the construction-related sectors delay the new projects.”

• Tuesday, July 10th 2012 - 05:15 UTC

  Pork for apples opens the way to normalize frozen Argentine/Brazilian trade

  

  After two months of waiting, Brazil authorized the entry of apples from Argentina’s Alto Valle of Rio Negro and Neuquen. The news, which brings relief to local exporters, came after Argentina reopened its market to pork from Brazil.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 21:07 UTC

  Paraguayan industry lobby says forget Mercosur, calls for talks with Pacific Alliance

  

  The president of the Paraguayan Industrial Union Eduardo Filippo said it was essential for the country to establish negotiations outside Mercosur, following the suspension from the group by the remaining three members allegedly because of the rupture of the democratic order.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 19:59 UTC

  Morgan Stanley cuts Argentina’s growth estimates and forecasts 2013 devaluation

  

  Morgan Stanley has cut its 2012-13 growth forecasts for Argentina and forecasts a sharp devaluation of the Argentine peso next year as the economy starts to unravel amid high inflation and policy missteps.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 18:54 UTC

  Bad weather threatening crops in farming giants but it’s not like 2008

  

  A second global food price shock is gathering steam as bad weather decimates crops in the farming giants US, Brazil, Argentina, India, Russia, the EU and Australia that feed the world, according to market analysts.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 18:13 UTC

  Euro zone to tighten financial regulation following the Libor rigging scandal

  

  Michel Barnier, the European commissioner in charge of financial regulation, is expected to bring forward changes to his market abuse directive and regulation within in the next weeks, the Financial Times said on Monday.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 18:04 UTC

  BoE Tucker denies making any suggestions to Barclays on the Libor (in 2008)

  

  The deputy governor of the Bank of England (BoE) has said he did not give Barclays instructions to lower its Libor submissions in 2008. Paul Tucker said no government minister had asked him to “lean on” Barclays over its inter-bank lending rates. But he also told MPs that the BoE and the government feared that Barclays may need a bailout.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 12:45 UTC

  Bolivia: Indigenous rioting threaten Canadian mining company with nationalization

  

  Bolivia will consider nationalizing Canadian miner South American Silver Corp's silver property, President Evo Morales said on Sunday, following violent indigenous protests against the mining project.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 12:29 UTC

  Brazil plans to become main producer/exporter of iron ore by 2015

  

  Hong Kong's Honbridge Holdings Ltd plans to build a 420-kilometre pipeline to ship iron-ore from a mine in Brazil's Minas Gerais state to a port on the country's Atlantic coast, the Estado de Minas newspaper reported.

• Monday, July 9th 2012 - 12:20 UTC

  Italy announces further cuts in expenditure and freezes government hiring

  

  Italy's government has agreed to cut spending by 26bn Euros over the next three years to plug the gap between spending and income. The cuts, approved after seven hours of talks, include a 10% reduction in the number of civil servants and cuts to healthcare and come as Italy struggles to keep the faith of investors.