Economy

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 08:31 UTC

  Latin American central banks ready to reverse policy and cut interest rates

  

  Latin America’s central banks are coming to the end of steep rises in borrowing costs as the global economic outlook darkens and some are starting to consider policy loosening and interest rate cuts.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 08:29 UTC

  Brazil to regulate credit-rating agencies to help them improve quality of their analysis

  

  Brazil Securities and Exchange Commission, CVM, expects to have ready by the end of the year a regulatory framework for risk rating agencies with the purpose of improving the quality of their analysis, said Maria Helena Santana, president of CVM.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 03:30 UTC

  “Macroeconomics policies must support growth” warns IMF chief Lagarde

  

  The new head of the IMF urged global policymakers to pursue urgent coordinated action, including the mandatory recapitalization of European banks, or risk descent into renewed world recession.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:19 UTC

  Unemployment in Brazil falls to its lowest level this year, 6%

  

  Brazil’s unemployment rate fell in July to its lowest level this year, 6% from 6.2% in June, reported the National statistics office. Average real wages rose 4% from a year ago to 1.613 Real (999.50 dollars) a month.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:17 UTC

  Brazil en route to comply comfortably with budget planned primary surplus

  

  Brazil’s budget primary surplus widened in July to a record for the month pushing the year-to-date total to almost 80% of the government’s 2011 target, according to the Central bank.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:09 UTC

  S&P upgrades Brazil’s ratings based on “good long-term growth prospects”

  

  Brazil local-currency credit rating is being reviewed for an upgrade by Standard & Poor’s, which cited the country’s economic stability. The rating was affirmed at BBB+, the third-lowest investment grade, S&P said in a statement.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:04 UTC

  Brazil ‘unofficially’ lowers 2011 growth estimate to 3.7% from 4%

  

  The Brazilian government has unofficially cut its outlook for 2011 GDP growth given a slowing world economy and unsustainably fast expansion last year, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:01 UTC

  Tim Cook, the man who replaces Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO

  

  Steve Jobs took home 1 dollar a year for serving as Apple's CEO. The company's new leader, Tim Cook, is getting a richer deal. Apple's board has given Cook a restricted stock grant of 1 million shares, Apple reported late Friday in a regulatory filing. Those shares have a market value of 383.6 million dollars, based on the stock's closing price on Friday.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 15:56 UTC

  Bernanke defers announcement; sends US Congress strong message on fiscal deficit

  

  The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has signalled that the US central bank will not take any immediate action to boost growth. In a keenly anticipated speech, Mr Bernanke simply said the Fed had a “range of tools that could be used to provide additional monetary stimulus”.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 04:09 UTC

  Argentina blasts Moody’s for questioning soundness of the banking system

  

  Argentina’s Central Bank’s Governor (BCRA) Mercedes Marcó del Pont said on Thursday that the Argentine banking system “is in its best historical levels of liquidity, solvency and default rates” referring to an earlier report from Moody’s rating agency.