Economy

• Thursday, February 28th 2013 - 06:07 UTC

  President Rousseff pledges to cut “Brazil cost” and keeping inflation in check

  

  President Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday that Brazil must cut its high business costs to become more competitive and vowed to keep inflation in check. The leader anticipated that 2013 will be a year of major infrastructure investments in roads, railways, ports and airports to try to stop bottlenecks from holding the economy back.

• Thursday, February 28th 2013 - 06:04 UTC

  Ninety consecutive months of two-digit inflation in Argentina

  

  Two-digit inflation in Argentina has reached 90 consecutive months, according to economist Carlos Melconian who added that since 2001 the prices’ increase in the country has averaged 500%.

• Thursday, February 28th 2013 - 05:40 UTC

  Australia beef and veal export reached 4.77 billion dollars

  

  Australian beef and veal export values in 2012 increased 2% year-on-year, reaching 4.77 billion dollars. While beef and veal export volumes during 2012 notched a record, values were short of the equivalent feat, influenced by a greater proportion of exports made up of frozen product and the high Australian dollar.

• Thursday, February 28th 2013 - 01:50 UTC

  Argentine soy bean crop despite late rainfall expected to reach 48 million tons

  

  The Rosario Chamber of Commerce estimates Argentina’s soy production at 48 million tons, which is 9.4% below the 2012/13 harvest estimate of January, 53 million tons, mainly because of a prolonged drought which extended from early December to mid February.

• Thursday, February 28th 2013 - 01:39 UTC

  UK economy expands 0.2% in 2012, but growth remains sluggish

  

  The UK economy grew by more than previously thought in 2012, official figures have shown. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised its growth estimate for the year up from no growth to 0.2%. But the figure for the last three months of the year was left unchanged at a quarterly contraction of 0.3%.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 06:50 UTC

  Brazil expects inflation to drop in second half of 2013 on a bumper crop of grains

  

  Brazil’s inflation will slow in the second half of the year as the country produces a bumper crop of grains and the Real doesn’t weaken as it did last year, central bank President Alexandre Tombini said.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 05:10 UTC

  Jack Lew closer to becoming US Treasury Secretary; Senate votes Hagel for the Pentagon

  

  Jack Lew won the Senate Finance Committee’s approval to become US Treasury secretary and a full vote in the upper house confirmed Chuck Hagel as the next US defense secretary. The Senate approved the nomination Tuesday in a vote of 58 to 41.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 04:55 UTC

  Major global effort involving Interpol launched to eliminate IUU fishing

  

  Interpol Environmental Crime Program, with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, this week announced the beginning of a massive global movement -- Project SCALE -- to cull illegal fishing and associated crimes.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 01:52 UTC

  Argentina’s industrial production marked a modest 0.2% rise in January

  

  Argentina's industrial production started the year with a modest improvement rising 0.2% in January from a year earlier after output shrank 1.2% in 2012 as a whole, government data showed. Factory output rose 0.6% in January compared with December, seasonally adjusted.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 01:49 UTC

  Repsol sells package of LNG assets to Shell to cut its debt and hold to credit rating

  

  Spanish energy giant Repsol SA said Tuesday that it agreed to sell a package of liquefied natural gas assets to Royal Dutch Shell Plc in a transaction valued at 6.65 billion dollars. Shell will pay 4.4bn in cash and assume 2.25bn in debt, Repsol said in a regulatory filing.