Economy

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:29 UTC

  Collapse of a 35bn dollars empire; Brazil’s Eike Batista defaulted on 45 million interest payment

  

  Two days ago, former Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista crossed a line. He started to default on a 45 million dollars interest payments on his oil and gas company, OGX's, bonds. The default will be official on October 30th, according to Bloomberg. That leaves bondholders, like PIMCO, the largest bond fund in the world helmed by legendary investor Bill Gross, taking a massive hit. And what's worse is that there could be more to come, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:23 UTC

  Brazil, a giant but with “a lot of fat and much in the way of muscle”

  

  Brazil, Latin America's largest economy is in dire need of structural reforms and reduced government bloat to fuel sustainable growth, analysts say. And this will not happen overnight and will take massive political will. A giant but it carries “a lot of fat and not much in the way of muscle”.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:17 UTC

  Moody’s lowers Brazil’s credit rating to stable from positive: rising debt and weak growth

  

  Brazil’s currency Real declined from its highest level in two weeks after Moody’s Investors Service cited rising debt and weak growth in lowering its outlook on the country’s credit rating to stable from positive.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 07:09 UTC

  Argentina will challenge Uruguay’s decision to expand pulp mill production at The Hague Court of Justice

  

  Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman has confirmed that Argentina will go before the international court of justice at The Hague over the decision of Uruguayan president José Mujica, who on Wednesday authorised increased production at the UPM (ex-Botnia) paper plant.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 06:35 UTC

  ‘Exasperated’ Obama warns Wall Street that Republicans could force the US to default on its debt

  

  US President Barack Obama has warned that Wall Street should be concerned that a conservative faction of Republicans is willing to allow the country to default on its debt. The US government has partially closed after Congress failed to agree a budget and will run out of cash on 17 October unless its debt ceiling is raised.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 06:31 UTC

  Colombia, Chile and Peru move to integrate foreign exchange markets

  

  Colombia, Peru and Chile announced on Wednesday the integration of their foreign exchange markets in the framework of MILA to facilitate money exchange operations between the three associates which add to a daily average turnover of 2,798bn. So far the Latinamerican Integrated Market, MILA, is operating with a combined stock market for the three nations.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2013 - 22:51 UTC

  Brazil oil and gas output reached an average of 2.495 million boepd during August

  

  Brazil's oil and natural gas output rose for the second time in three months in August as new output from giant offshore fields barely outpaced declines from the depletion of older areas and maintenance, oil industry watchdog ANP said this week.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2013 - 16:11 UTC

  Petrobras readies 60th anniversary announcing a million barrels production increase by next year

  

  Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, which will mark its 60th anniversary on Thursday, has announced it will increase production by 50% in an effort to overcome the current situation. Nine production units now being installed will pump an additional one million barrels a day beginning next year said Petrobras CEO María das Graças Foster.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2013 - 08:20 UTC

  Irreconcilable positions forecast US government shutdown could turn really serious

  

  The partial shutdown of the US government showed no signs of ending quickly, as lawmakers stiffened their positions and sought to shift blame to the other side.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2013 - 07:54 UTC

  Brazil central bank admits “a lot of work must be done” to bring down inflation

  

  Inflation in Brazil will remain stubbornly high well into 2015 even as the economy struggles to gain steam, the central bank said in its quarterly inflation report. The bank also revised down its estimate for economic growth to 2.5% for this year from a previous 2.7% forecast. The bank sees growth keeping that pace until the second quarter of 2014.