Economy

• Wednesday, June 27th 2012 - 17:19 UTC

  Uruguay’s fiscal performance exposed to “political limitations”, says S&P report

  

  Risk rating agency Standard & Poor’s praised Uruguay’s fiscal moderation in the last eight years since the budget’s fiscal deficit has been below 2% of GDP but criticized the “political limitations” which impede the achievement of a better performance.

• Wednesday, June 27th 2012 - 08:51 UTC

  Italian treasury to the rescue of the world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Pachi

  

  Italy offered up to 2 billion Euros on Tuesday to plug a capital gap in the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the second time in three years the cash-strapped state has had to bail out the world's oldest bank.

• Wednesday, June 27th 2012 - 08:32 UTC

  Mexico preparing WTO case against Argentina over suspension of auto trade accord

  

  Mexico is prepared to take legal actions against Argentina after the government of President Cristina Fernandez announced its decision “to suspend” an automobile trade agreement.

• Wednesday, June 27th 2012 - 08:25 UTC

  Argentina reiterates it will honour bonds maturing in August and December

  

  Argentina will pay back 5.716 billion dollars in bonds maturing next August and December, several of them tied to GDP evolution, confirmed president Cristina Fernandez.

• Wednesday, June 27th 2012 - 08:14 UTC

  First organized labour national strike challenges President Cristina Fernandez

  

  For the first time in decades the powerful Argentine organized labour movement has confirmed it is going ahead with a much debated national strike against a Peronist government, which allegedly rests on support precisely from the unions and a long history of generous labour legislation.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2012 - 22:37 UTC

  Spanish regions cripple Madrid’s attempts to keep budget deficit target

  

  Spain is considering raising consumer, energy and property taxes, the government said, as it struggles to reduce a public deficit that may have already exceeded one of its budgeted ceilings for the full year.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2012 - 06:32 UTC

  Argentina/China sign a raft of agreements to boost trade and investment

  

  Argentina signed with China a raft of mostly farm-related agreements at a ceremony on Monday in Buenos Aires attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Argentine president Cristina Fernandez.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2012 - 06:14 UTC

  Argentine major gas field remains blocked by striking workers that rampaged control offices

  

  American Energy said on Monday it has been unable to regain access to a strategically important oil and gas field it operates in Argentina's Chubut Province because protesters are blocking the roads leading to it.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2012 - 04:30 UTC

  Moody’s confirms Spanish banks on the cliff burdened by souring real-estate loans

  

  Spain largest lenders, Santander SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA were downgraded by Moody’s rating agency because of the country’s sovereign debt and souring real-estate loans.

• Tuesday, June 26th 2012 - 03:49 UTC

  Major change in Petrobras exploration policy looking to diversity from two main basins

  

  Brazil’s Petrobras which has become the world’s biggest deepwater oil producer is looking past its largest discoveries to avoid a fate similar to Mexico, where output has plummeted 25% since 2004.