Economy

• Wednesday, August 21st 2013 - 00:15 UTC

  Slow Chinese demand hits mining giants’ profits; not much change expected in short term

  

  Newly-formed mining giant Glencore Xstrata has written down the value of Xstrata's assets by 7.7bn dollars and reported a drop in revenues. The firm, which was created in May, said the write-down reflected tougher conditions in the mining sector.

• Tuesday, August 20th 2013 - 23:35 UTC

  The sliding Brazilian currency has depreciated 18% in the last twelve months

  

  The Brazilian currency Real, which is the region’s reference, is undergoing one of its major depreciations against the US dollar in the last four years because of the poor performance of its economy and the tendency is to continue, at least in the short term, given the uncertainty about US monetary policy.

• Tuesday, August 20th 2013 - 01:47 UTC

  Uruguay has become one of the most expensive countries in the region

  

  Uruguay has become one of the dearest countries in the region taking into account prices of goods and services according to a survey in eleven cities done by the Group of Newspapers from the Americas, (GDA) a network of the main dailies in the continent.

• Friday, August 16th 2013 - 18:00 UTC

  Canadian bank abandons Uruguay following raid on its office on request from Argentine judge

  

  The Royal Bank of Canada, RBC, is abandoning Uruguay following a raid in its offices at Zonamerica ordered by a Uruguayan magistrate on request from Argentina during which computers, documents on clients and even cell phones from staff were seized by the intervening party which included on-watching Argentine treasury police.

• Friday, August 16th 2013 - 03:37 UTC

  Argentina will pay bonds maturing in September with Central bank reserves

  

  Argentina's central bank approved on Thursday the use of 2.5 billion dollars to pay public debt through the rest of 2013, a move that will further diminish reserves already stretched by heavy state spending ahead of the October midterm election.

• Friday, August 16th 2013 - 03:18 UTC

  Argentina’s official July inflation 0.9%, less than half private estimates

  

  Argentina's Consumer Price Index (IPC) was up 0.9% in July, 5.7% in the first seven months of the year and 10.6% in the last twelve months, the official statistics bureau Indec reported on Thursday.

• Friday, August 16th 2013 - 03:04 UTC

  Brazil's June economic activity picked up, but recovery remains fragile

  

  Brazil's economic activity grew at a slightly slower pace than expected in June despite strong industrial output, data showed on Thursday. The central bank's IBC-Br index climbed 1.13% in June from May in seasonally adjusted terms, up from a decline of 1.50% in the previous month.

• Thursday, August 15th 2013 - 03:45 UTC

  With defiant fury Cristina Fernandez launched the campaign for October election

  

  In an extremely aggressive speech in the aftermath of primaries defeat, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez blasted the media for misinterpreting electoral results, charged against the Mayor of Tigre Sergio Massa who was the big winner on Sunday, pressed for full commitment from her allies and promised more of the same in support of the ‘socially inclusive model’.

• Thursday, August 15th 2013 - 03:37 UTC

  Argentina July inflation 2.55% and 24.9% in twelve months, says congressional index

  

  Argentina’s inflation according to the ‘congressional index’ reached 2.55% in July and 24.9% in the last twelve months was announced on Wednesday by members from the opposition in the Lower House.

• Wednesday, August 14th 2013 - 20:16 UTC

  EU climbs out of 18-month recession led by Germany and France, but still fragile

  

  European stock markets mostly rose on Wednesday after official data showed that the Euro zone had finally escaped from a record 18-month recession. The Euro-zone climbed out of recession with surprisingly strong growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter led by Germany and France, announced the European Union.