Economy

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 11:04 UTC

  Brazil cuts basic interest rate to 11.24%, the most in five years

  Brazil’s Central bank slashed the Selic benchmark interest rate by 150 points to 11.25%, the most in five years. The vote was unanimous and follows a barrage of negative data about South America’s largest economy.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 04:17 UTC

  Chinese exports plunge 26% in February; domestic car sales up 25%

  

  Chinese exports plunged by more than a quarter in February from a year ago as the world's third-largest economy was hit by a drop in demand for its goods. Exports dropped by 25.7% to 64.9 billion US dollars compared with the same month a year earlier, while imports fell by 24.1% to 60.1 billion according to official figures.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 02:40 UTC

  Norway’s sovereign fund, world’s second largest, lost 92 billion USD in 2008

  

  Norway’s Government Pension Fund suffered a 633 billion kroner equivalent to 92 billion US dollars loss on its investments in 2008. The loss, which amounts to some 125.000 kroner for every Norwegian, came after a “sharp fall in global equity prices”, head fund manager Yngve Slyngstad said Wednesday.

• Wednesday, March 11th 2009 - 23:50 UTC

  IMF chief warns of “great recession” but markets react to upbeat banking report

  

  The head of the International Monetary Fund says the world economy is likely to shrink this year throwing millions into poverty, in what some are referring to as the “Great Recession”. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a conference in Tanzania Tuesday that sharp declines in world trade are likely to hurt African economies.

• Wednesday, March 11th 2009 - 23:39 UTC

  Brazil/Uruguay summit agrees on free trade and energy integration

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva said that relations with neighbouring Uruguay are at “their best level ever”, following a meeting Tuesday with visiting president Tabare Vazquez.

• Wednesday, March 11th 2009 - 07:27 UTC

  Brazilian economy registers worst quarterly decline since 1996

  

  Brazil's economy suffered the worst decline in more than a decade in the last quarter of 2008, shrinking 3.6% from the previous quarter, official figures show. The fall ends a three year consistent growth, even when output for the whole of 2008 remained strong at 5.1%.

• Tuesday, March 10th 2009 - 11:32 UTC

  Even the Simpsons loose their home to foreclosure in the US

  

  In the last episode of the emblematic television show of The Simpsons aired Sunday in United States, the Springfield family loose their home as have millions of US citizens dramatically dragged by the sub prime mortgage crisis that so much suffering and despair is causing.

• Tuesday, March 10th 2009 - 11:25 UTC

  Mexico City with sharpest cost of living decline in the region

  

  The latest Economist Intelligence Unit cost of living survey highlights the way in which sharp shifts in exchange rates in recent months have altered the relative cost of living in cities around the world.

• Tuesday, March 10th 2009 - 09:02 UTC

  Brazil’s auto sales in February rise spurred by tax breaks

  

  Brazil's auto sales rose slightly in February thanks to a temporary government tax break that reduces car prices, the National Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, Anfavea, said on Monday.

• Tuesday, March 10th 2009 - 08:58 UTC

  Central bankers forecast world economy could be at “pick up” point

  

  The global economy may soon see signs of improvement, according to the heads of the world's major central banks. European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet said that the world economy could be approaching a “pick-up” point.