Economy

• Monday, January 7th 2013 - 14:14 UTC

  Argentina gains a new ally in its fight against hedge funds: WEF’ Schwab

  

  Argentina’s worldwide court battles against the hedge funds which did not accept the restructuring of its defaulted debt and are after the country’s assets, has gained another ally, the president of the World Economic Forum, (WEF) Klaus Schwab.

• Monday, January 7th 2013 - 13:52 UTC

  Several Fed members fearing inflation want a cap to the bond-buying program

  

  A number of senior figures at the Federal Reserve want the US central bank to stop or slow down its bond-buying program “well before the end of 2013”. December minutes of its interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) showed that “several” of its twelve members made the call.

• Monday, January 7th 2013 - 13:49 UTC

  Koreans again in love with US beef following aggressive campaign from industry

  

  Only four years ago 100.000 South Koreans lined the streets of Seoul to protest the return of US beef to Korea. Consumer confidence in US beef was at an all-time low to the extent that media outlets would not even accept paid ads promoting the products for fear of getting pulled into the protest backlash – instead joining the outrage by declaring US beef to be unsafe from BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) or ‘mad cow’.

• Monday, January 7th 2013 - 13:33 UTC

  NZ farm workers wage increase above rising costs: 37.000 US dollars per annum

  

  New Zealand farm workers are doing better than their counterparts in other industries when it comes to wage rises. A Rabobank-Federated Farmers survey has shown farm workers recorded an overall average salary rise of 4.9% in the year to October, 2010.

• Saturday, January 5th 2013 - 05:59 UTC

  Lowering the price of power, Uruguay ends 2012 with an inflation of 7.48%

  

  Consumer prices in Uruguay ended the year at 7.48% after recording the lowest December percentage in forty years: a negative 0.73%. However analysts and consultants anticipate that inflation in the first quarter of 2013 will remain above an annualized 8%.

• Saturday, January 5th 2013 - 05:53 UTC

  Argentina among select group with the highest inflation in the last fiv-year period

  

  Argentina is among the world’s countries which experienced the highest inflation in the last five years based on average data from the country’s private consultants and the IMF. The double digit inflation was estimated at 21.3%, an approximate average for the 2008/2012 period, and compiled by IERAL an Argentine business think-tank.

• Saturday, January 5th 2013 - 05:41 UTC

  Blackouts and agriculture collapse forecasted in drought stricken north-east Brazil

  

  North-east Brazil is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.

• Friday, January 4th 2013 - 23:40 UTC

  Brazil appeals to sovereign fund and state companies’ profits to meet 2012 fiscal target

  

  Brazil tapped into its sovereign wealth fund and state companies’ profits in an effort to meet its 2012 fiscal target.

• Friday, January 4th 2013 - 22:15 UTC

  EU expects to advance trade talks with Mercosur late this month in Chile

  

  The European Union expects to advance cooperation and trade discussions with Mercosur late this month in Chile in the sidelines of the EU/Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), said EU ambassador in Chile, Rafael Dochao Moreno.

• Friday, January 4th 2013 - 22:13 UTC

  Swiss bank pleads guilty in US court to helping tax evasion and closes definitely

  

  Switzerland's oldest bank is to close permanently after pleading guilty in a New York court to helping Americans evade their taxes. Wegelin, which was established in 1741, has also agreed to pay 57.8m dollars in fines to US authorities. The bank had admitted to allowing more than 100 American citizens to hide 1.2bn dollars from the Internal Revenue Service for almost 10 years.