Economy

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 03:29 UTC

  Santos could seek popular approval for any peace and political accord with FARC

  

  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened the door to a popular vote on any peace accord negotiated and signed with FARC rebels, but rejected a guerrilla demand to change the constitution if a deal is clinched.

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 03:16 UTC

  Canada’s new plastic banknotes with the wrong maple leaf

  

  The Bank of Canada has barked up the wrong maple tree with its new plastic banknotes, using a foreign Norway maple leaf as the emblem on the notes instead of the sugar maple that the country has on its national flag, an eagle-eyed Canadian botanist says.

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 03:00 UTC

  Argentine car washers blame poor weather forecasting for bad business

  

  A summer brawl has surfaced in Buenos Aires between the car washers’ industry and the Argentine Meteorological service that are blamed for their poor forecasts which scares customers from the outlets.

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 00:29 UTC

  Anywhere from 30 to 50% of world food production lost to waste, says engineers’ group

  

  The report “Global Food: Waste Not Want Not” by the UK’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has found that 30-50%, or 1.2-2 billion tons, of produced food is wasted by poor storage, bad distribution and exacting quality standards in the developed world.

• Friday, January 18th 2013 - 23:58 UTC

  Environmentalists praise conservation aspects of new Chilean Fisheries law

  

  Chile has established a set of new fisheries laws protecting underwater sea mountains, limiting by-catch and setting science based quotas, protecting 150.000 square kilometers of marine habitat.

• Friday, January 18th 2013 - 23:47 UTC

  Controversy in Chile over salmon industry costs, regulations and standards

  

  The recent statements by the CEO of Marine Harvest in Chile generated a rapid reaction of the Minister of Economy, who justified the measures taken to prevent the catastrophic recurrence of a crisis such as the spread of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA).

• Thursday, January 17th 2013 - 23:45 UTC

  European Parliament calls for speeding EU/Mercosur trade negotiations

  

  The European Parliament regretted that negotiations for an association agreement between the European Union and Mercosur remain stalled or have hardly advanced since they officially resumed two years ago.

• Thursday, January 17th 2013 - 22:02 UTC

  Uruguay’s growth estimates for this year, 3.86%, according to private estimates

  

  Private analysts lowered their forecasts for Uruguay’s GDP growth this year from an average of 4% in December to 3.86%, according to the latest monthly survey on economic expectations released by the Central Bank. Expectations for January ranged between 3.2% and 4%.

• Thursday, January 17th 2013 - 20:27 UTC

  IMF ‘definitive’ assessment of Argentine inflation and GDP stats in February

  

  IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde confirmed to the Argentine media that next February first the fund will be assessing her critical report on Argentine statistics, which could lead to sanctions for the country.

• Thursday, January 17th 2013 - 16:49 UTC

  Uruguay poised to grow 4% this year; Argentina and Brazil, 3.4%, says World Bank

  

  Uruguay’s economy is poised to grow 4% this year and in 2014, which is above the region’s average, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects issued this week. However Uruguay will be ranked twelfth in the growth ranking of Latinamerica this year but ahead of Brazil and Argentina with 3.4%.