Argentina’s June inflation according to the ‘congressional index’ was 1.93%, and 23.78% in the last twelve months, it was announced on Thursday by the opposition members from the Lower House Freedom of Speech committee.
Top banks are putting their submissions to the UK Treasury to run a potential £20bn sale of the nationalised part of Lloyds Bank. Banks have until Monday to make their pitch to handle the sell-off of the government's 39% holding in Lloyds, with the sale of RBS, which is 81% owned by the taxpayer, to come later.
US government posted an unexpectedly large budget surplus in June, a further sign of the rapid improvement in public finances that has taken the heat off Congress to find savings and raise the nation's borrowing limit.
US shares closed at record levels after the Federal Reserve indicated that its efforts to boost the economy would continue for now. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.1% higher at 15,460.92 and the broader S&P 500 added 1.3% to end at a new peak of 1,675.02. Both measures surpassed previous record highs hit in late May. The Nasdaq ended at its highest close since October 2000.
Suriname and Guyana signed on Thursday the protocols to become associate members of Mercosur which is currently holding its mid year summit in Montevideo. This means all South American countries are now part of Mercosur.
Brazil’s central bank raised the benchmark interest rate a third consecutive time and anticipated that the tightening cycle may be extended through the rest of the year as policy makers fight inflation.
Tens of thousands of workers across Brazil have walked off their jobs on Thursday in a nationwide strike demanding better working conditions and improved public services. Organized by Brazil’s biggest trade union federations, strikers are partially or completely blocking 17 highways in seven states.
After almost twenty years of negotiations United States confirmed the opening of its market to citrus from Uruguay, which will become effective next 9 August when certain coordination and logistics tasks are coordinated by both countries.
China accepts that Taiwan signs economic cooperation agreements with other countries as long as they are not political and those countries do not interfere with the ‘one China policy’ which considers the island a province part of the nation, and not two nations as defended by Taipei.
By Markus Jaeger (*) - What could China possibly learn from Brazil, economically? After all, real GDP growth in Brazil averaged 2.75% annually over the past three decades, compared to 10% in China. Moreover, Brazil’s consumption-oriented growth model is about to exhaust itself, while China’s investment-focussed strategy continues to generate high, if somewhat diminished economic growth.