The leaders of Germany and France promised to unveil a new comprehensive package for solving the Euro zone's debt crisis by the end of the month, but offered no details and papered over differences on how to shore up European banks.
Chilean inflation rose 0.5% in September and the trade balance narrowed as falling copper output forced the first monthly year-on-year fall in exports in over two years.
Chinese automaker JAC Motors announced Friday it will invest 500 million dollars to build a factory in Brazil's north-eastern Bahia state its first outside China.
European banks may need more than 100 billion Euros to withstand the sovereign debt crisis, Ireland estimated, ahead of a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to work out how to recapitalise the lenders.
The Inter American Development Bank, IDB, has a special reserve for emergency loans of 3 billion dollars “in the event of a major global financial crisis”, said Roberto Vellutini, IDB Vice-president following meetings in Paraguay.
The World Bank has called on Germany to take a stronger political leadership role in Europe in order to end the Euro zone debt crisis.
A Chilean appeals court in Puerto Montt voted 3 to 1 to reject seven lawsuits brought against the proposed controversial HidroAysén hydroelectric mega-dam approved by the Chilean government on May 9 of this year.
Annual inflation in Brazil hit a six-year high in September, government data showed on Friday. The benchmark IPCA consumer price index rose 7.31% in the 12 months through September -- above the official target range ceiling of 6.5% for the sixth straight month and the highest 12-month rate since May 2005.
Fitch cut on Friday Italy's sovereign credit rating by one notch and Spain's by two, citing a worsening of the Euro zone debt crisis and a risk of fiscal slippage in both countries. Fitch cut Italy's rating to A+ from AA- and lowered Spain to AA- from AA+.
Moody's has downgraded the credit rating of 12 UK financial firms including Lloyds TSB, RBS, Nationwide and Santander UK. The ratings agency said it now believed the government was less likely to support firms that got into trouble.