Economy

• Monday, December 20th 2010 - 05:32 UTC

  Brazil world fourth largest market for the auto industry: 3.45 m sales in 2010

  

  Brazil has become the world’s fourth largest market for the automobile industry with sales of 3.45 million in 2010, up 9.8% over 2009, and is also attracting massive overseas investments to the industry, reports Anfavea the Brazilian Association of automobile manufacturers.Brazil now stands behind China, United States, Japan and ahead of Germany.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 21:08 UTC

  Chilean wine industry booming: sales up 10% and exports 11.7%

  

  Between Jan and Oct 2010, 83 of the top 100 Chilean wineries increased their sales of bottled wine. According to figures from Wines of Chile, 68 of these wineries increased sales by more than 10%. Exports have increased by 11.7% compared to figures during the same period in 2009.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 19:04 UTC

  Fiat targeting a production of over a million cars in Brazil

  

  Fiat announced this week that it plans to invest 3 billion Real (approx. 1.7 billion USD) to build a second plant in Brazil, the carmaker’s No. 2 market after its native Italy.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 19:03 UTC

  China targeting economic growth of 8% and 4% inflation for 2011

  

  The Chinese government is targeting economic growth of around 8% and inflation of around 4% next year, state television reported this week, citing Zhang Ping, the head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 18:39 UTC

  Cars and construction spur Argentina industrial production 12.5% in November

  

  Argentina's industrial production grew more than expected in November, on the back of big gains in automobile and construction materials output. Industrial production last month rose 12.5% on the year, and 4.1% in seasonally adjusted terms from October, the national statistics agency, Indec, reported Friday.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 18:30 UTC

  Dragon and Elephant: complicated neighbourhood

  

  *By Sameer Jafri - Year 2010 marks sixty years of diplomatic relationship between India and China. Though the relations between the two go back to ancient times, the period since 1950 till present is mainly fraught with boundary dispute, which also led to a short-lived war in 1962. But in recent times, both sides have successfully attempted to normalize the bilateral relationship, mainly driven by the mounting bilateral trade.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 09:02 UTC

  UK, France, Germany join forces to freeze EU budget until end of the decade

  

  British Prime Minister David Cameron has joined forces with France and Germany to demand a real-terms freeze in the European Union budget until the end of the decade.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 08:55 UTC

  Obama signs bipartisan tax-cut bill resisted by hard core Democrats

  

  United States president Barack Obama signed Friday into law an 858 billion US dollars bill extending for two years Bush-era tax cuts to boost a fragile economy and add jobs.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 00:22 UTC

  Chilean Senators warn about ‘social impact’ of cheap US dollar for farm areas

  

  Senators representing agricultural parts of Chile strongly criticized the Central Bank and President Sebastian Piñera this week for turning a deaf ear to the “social, cultural and economic problems” created by the falling value of the US dollar, now hovering at 470 pesos to the dollar.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 23:04 UTC

  IMF anticipates ‘soft-landing’ of Uruguay’s economy in next two years

  

  The International Monetary Fund said economic growth in Uruguay will probably slow over the next two years, requiring policy makers to prepare for a “soft landing.”