
Following on a joint initiative from United States and Brazil the Group of 20, or G-20, will be holding an extraordinary meeting next Saturday in Washington to address the current financial global crisis and its impact on emerging economies.

United States government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiraling figure.

Latin-American countries moved quickly this week to face the global financial crisis and came out with a battery of measures pumping billions of US dollars to try and contain the threat of recession.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has activated an emergency finance mechanism to help countries hit by the financial crisis. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan said the lending procedure would allow the IMF to react quickly to support countries facing funding problems.
The financial crisis is hurting automotive dealers across United States and could contribute to an estimated 700 dealerships closing this year, the US National Automobile Dealers Association Chairwoman Annette Sykora said on Tuesday.

Latinamerican markets finished sharply lower on Tuesday under pressure from the slide on Wall Street, falling commodity prices and uncertainty about the future. Growth forecasts have also been downgraded.

The British government has announced plans to partially nationalise the country's major banks, in a package using up to £50bn ($87.5bn) of taxpayers' money.
With no end in sight for the global financial and confidence crisis, plus the price of commodities falling, the US dollar is breaking new records in Chile having closed trading on Wednesday at 612 Chilean pesos.

The economy of the euro zone contracted 0.2% in the second quarter after growing 0.7% the previous quarter, according to the latest EU data, which confirmed earlier estimates.

Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as co-ordinated global interest rate cuts by major central banks failed to dispel the gloom engulfing world markets. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones ended 189.01 points lower, or 2%, at 9,258.1 despite having risen in earlier trade.