Economy

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 22:26 UTC

  Spanish court opens fraud case against Banka former executives

  

  A Spanish court opened a fraud case against former executives of lender Bankia on Wednesday amid mounting public anger against the state-rescued bank.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 06:05 UTC

  Inflation in Uruguay remains strong, reaches 4.13% in the first six months

  

  With a marginal descent, Uruguay’s annual inflation in the twelve months to June reached 8% compared to May’s, 8.06%, but still two percentage points above the Central bank upper cap target.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 05:58 UTC

  Barclays CEO resigns as the Libor rate fixing scandal widens

  

  UK Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond suddenly quit on Tuesday over an interest rate-rigging scandal that threatens to drag in a dozen more major lenders but suggested the Bank of England had encouraged his bank to manipulate the figures

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 03:04 UTC

  Uruguay leaves benchmark rate at 8.75% on persistent concern with inflation

  

  Uruguay's central bank held its benchmark interest rate steady at 8.75% on Tuesday, citing “reasonable” economic growth and persistent concern about inflation expectations above target.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 02:53 UTC

  Partly Canadian owned South American airline on the verge of bankruptcy

  

  Uruguay’s bankrupt flagship carrier Pluna decided on Tuesday to cancel all flights during 48 hours following an announcement from the union of a two-day strike to protest working conditions and rumours of 200 redundancies.

• Tuesday, July 3rd 2012 - 18:56 UTC

  IMF praises Germany; suggests more stimuli to a tepid performing US economy

  

  An IMF report revealed that the German economy’s performance has been remarkable despite facing considerable headwinds and that the US recovery “remains tepid and subject to elevated downside risks.”

• Tuesday, July 3rd 2012 - 18:46 UTC

  Bank of China expands in Brazil following 30bn dollars swap agreement

  

  Bank of China plans to cash in on the expanding bilateral trade between China and Brazil and the recent currency swap agreement between the two central banks.

• Tuesday, July 3rd 2012 - 06:20 UTC

  The Vatican bank opens up to show it is not involved in ‘sinful’ activities

  

  Vatican bank, one of the more secretive institutions of the secrecy-obsessed Vatican, opened itself up to a little external scrutiny in a bid to show it is serious about fighting money-laundering and being more financially transparent.

• Tuesday, July 3rd 2012 - 03:31 UTC

  EU markets’ watchdog investigating three major credit rating agencies

  

  The European markets watchdog is investigating whether the big three credit ratings agencies' methods of evaluating banks are rigorous and transparent enough, its chairman Steven Maijoor told the Financial Times on Monday.

• Tuesday, July 3rd 2012 - 02:55 UTC

  Brazil considering more export-boost measures to counter declining trade surplus

  

  Brazil's government is studying measures to boost the country's exports in the face of a still-difficult global trade environment, Deputy Trade Minister Allessandro Teixeira said on Monday.