Brazil is leading efforts to increase its own and Mercosur interests in closer trade and investment relations with Canada. This week the Brazilian Foreign Trade Secretary from the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, MDIC, Tatiana Prazeres received the Canadian ambassador in Brasilia, Emmanuel Kamarianakis and special representatives, with the purpose of strengthening trade relations between both countries and the regional block Mercosur.
Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira Thursday said during an appearance before his country's Senatorial Foreign Relations Committee that the European Union's (EU) new environmental requirements for the Mercosur-EU agreement could cause enormous damage to the South American bloc.
Inflation in the US has fallen to 4,9%, in the twelve months to April, according to official figures. That was down from 5% in March and marks the tenth month in a row that price rises have slowed.
Ecuador and China signed a free trade agreement (FTA) whereby the South American country will have access to a market of 1.4 billion people, it was reported in Quito on Wednesday. It was the second such pact signed under the administration of President Guillermo Lasso, following the one reached with Costa Rica.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed President Lula da Silva to Downing Street ahead of King Charles III Coronation on Saturday. The leaders discussed the great potential in the relationship between the UK and Brazil, including in health, research and development and technology.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) admitted negotiations with the Argentine Government were still going on toward a redesigning of the country's program in light of the present drought, while Casa Rosada sources agreed that the conversations were progressing constructively.
Millions of Brazilians could be thrown into extreme poverty in the next few years due to weather-related phenomena, a report released last week by the World Bank showed.
In a debt for nature swap, Credit Suisse has announced buying Ecuadorian bonds worth US$1.6 billion. With Ecuador in severe financial turmoil, the bonds were trading well below face value as investors considered non-repayment to be likely. Effectively, Ecuador has now bought its own debt back at a knock-down price via a fresh loan from Credit Suisse.
According to a Moody's Analytics report published this week, Latin America will lose productivity to climate change if it does not take swift action. The document titled Latin America under the risk of climate change explained that governments, companies, and financial institutions should adopt preventive measures to reduce carbon emissions, in order to mitigate eventual damages caused by climate change.
According to the Argentine Central Bank's (BCRA) Market Expectations Survey (Relevamiento de Expectativas de Mercado - REM) report published Friday, the panel of economists issuing that document has made an upward correction to their inflation forecasts for 2023, placing it at 126.4%, or 16.4 percentage points above April's projections, while last month's Consumer Price Index (CPI) is believed to be of 7.5%. The National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec) will release the official data on May 12.