Economy

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:24 UTC

  Papandreou yields, scraps referendum, promises to step down

  

  Intense European pressure forced debt-stricken Greece to seek political consensus on a new bailout plan instead of holding a referendum after EU leaders raised the prospect of a Greek exit from the Euro to preserve the single currency.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:20 UTC

  FAO food price index drops in October but remains higher than in 2010 and volatile

  

  The FAO Food price index dropped to an 11-month low in October, declining 4%, or nine points, to 216 points from September. Nonetheless prices still remain generally higher than last year and very volatile, FAO said.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:14 UTC

  October car sales in Brazil drop 10% surprising dealers and the auto industry

  

  Car sales in Brazil dropped 10% in October compared to the previous month according to the country’s dealers association, Fenabrave turning warning lights on for the global auto industry. This follows September’s decline that affected all of Brazilian industrial production.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:11 UTC

  Brazil must balance trade relation and avoid ‘anti-China feeling’

  

  Brazil must balance its trade relation with China, (leading commercial partner) and not allow an anti-Chinese feeling among manufacturers to spoil relations with Beijing said economists in Sao Paulo.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:50 UTC

  Russia to resume beef purchases from Paraguay

  

  Russia has decided to resume purchases of Paraguayan beef and derivates following the foot and mouth disease, FMD, episode detected in an only farm last September and which according to Paraguayan sanitary officials was caused by a ‘human error’.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:40 UTC

  After fifty years Cubans can buy and sell houses

  

  Cubans will be able to buy and sell houses for the first time in more than five decades in a long-awaited reform that legalizes what many have done for years but also restricts how much property they can own, state-run press said on Thursday.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:19 UTC

  Buenos Aires think-tank says recession probability in Argentina has reached 70%

  

  An Argentine think tank, the Centre of Financial Research, CIF, from the Torcuato Di Tella University School of Business in its latest release shows that Argentina’s probability of entering a recession reached 70%.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:14 UTC

  If Greece leaves the Euro, it must also quit the EU, warns Brussels

  

  If Greece decided to leave the Euro, it would also have to quit the European Union, according to the terms of the EU treaties, the European Commission said on Thursday.

• Thursday, November 3rd 2011 - 08:17 UTC

  BRICS ‘leaders scheduled to decide on common stance before the G20 summit'

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said that solutions to European and global economic difficulties need to promote economic growth and employment. Ms Rousseff arrived Wednesday in France for the summit of G-20 leaders this week, but before will be meeting with peers from the BRICS group to work out a common stance.

• Thursday, November 3rd 2011 - 08:09 UTC

  Greek surprise freezes China’s commitment to the Euro plan

  

  China has said it cannot commit to investing in the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) until the situation with Greece has been clarified. European leaders hoped that China would buy EFSF bonds, injecting capital in the region's financial markets.