Economy

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:23 UTC

  Desperately dollar-short Venezuela planning gold reserves swap operation

  

  Venezuela is evaluating a swap agreement involving gold reserves as a way to fortify dollar supplies in a country which suffers chronic product shortages and inflation close to 55%. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said last week that the government was negotiating a swap operation with Goldman Sachs involving 1.45 million ounces of gold worth around 1.86 billion dollars.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 22:51 UTC

  Repsol contracts Deutsche Bank as advisor for the YPF compensation deal

  

  Repsol appointed Deutsche Bank AG to advise it on the compensation pre-settlement it reached with Argentina regarding the seizure of 51% of YPF in April 2012. The arrangement was negotiated in Buenos Aires this week by ministers from Argentina and Spain, Repsol executives, and representatives from the Spanish company’s two largest shareholders, Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos, Pemex and Barcelona-based CaixaBank SA.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 20:51 UTC

  Poor ratings for Chile in health care and pensions' system, according to OECD

  

  Two biannual reports revealed Chile as one of the countries with the worst pension statistics and the highest citizen out-of-pocket expenditure on health among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 11:45 UTC

  Brazil determined to fight inflation raised its benchmark interest rate to 10%

  

  As was anticipated Brazil raised its benchmark interest rate to 10% from 9.5% on Wednesday lifting borrowing costs back to double-digit territory to battle high inflation in Latin America's largest economy.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 11:40 UTC

  Brazil auctions concession of highway that transports 45 million tons of grains annually

  

  Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht on Wednesday was awarded a 30-year concession to operate and maintain a stretch of the BR-163 federal highway, a major road in the western state of Mato Grosso, also known as 'soy road' because of the millions of tons of grains and oilseeds that are transported annually.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 11:28 UTC

  North west England trade mission scheduled to visit Chile, Argentina and Brazil

  

  Attracted by Chile’s positive economic climate a trade mission for North West England will be arriving in Santiago on 2nd-3rd December. The delegation from one of the most dynamic areas of the UK economy has representatives from Covering Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and the cities of Manchester and Liverpool.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 11:02 UTC

  Repsol board backs compensation deal offered by Argentina for seized YPF

  

  Spanish oil group Repsol's board Wednesday backed a draft multi-billion-dollar compensation deal over Argentina's 2012 seizure of the company's YPF subsidiary. The deal seeks to repair the financial hit taken by Repsol when Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez in April 2012 ordered the seizure of Repsol's 51-percent stake in YPF.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 10:31 UTC

  Maduro tells Central bank he expects 5% deflation in November because of the mandatory price cuts

  

  President Nicolás Maduro has sent clear messages to the Venezuelan central bank arguing that following the 'economic war' he declared on big business and hoarding with the mandatory cuts in prices, November should register “5% deflation and not inflation”.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 10:26 UTC

  Rousseff reluctant to increase fuel prices fearing inflation and social unrest

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is reluctant to allow the country's oil corporation Petrobras to increase the price of fuels this year, which would have an immediate impact on gasoline, transport and inflation, according to Folha de Sao Paulo.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 10:21 UTC

  Gol airlines admits it's on the brink because of Brazil's tepid economic performance

  

  Brazilian airline Gol Linhas-Aereas could continue cutting its domestic network in 2014 if necessary, Chief Executive Paulo Kakinoff said this week, highlighting uncertainty about economic growth.