Economy

• 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.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 01:14 UTC

  Italy fears knock world stock markets; US recovers on Bernanke’ defence of stimuli

  

  World stock markets and southern European government bonds sank on Tuesday on fears that political stalemate in Italy would leave its economic reforms in tatters and reignite the Euro zone's broader debt crisis.

• Tuesday, February 26th 2013 - 10:46 UTC

  Brazil: current account deficit outpacing FDI expected to continue for two months

  

  Brazil’s current account deficit surged to a record high in January, outpacing foreign direct investment for the third straight month because of the widening trade gap according to central bank data.

• Monday, February 25th 2013 - 21:31 UTC

  Promising gas discovery in southern Chile Magallanes Region

  

  GeoPark Holdings has revealed the discovery of the new Palos Quemados gas field on the Tranquilo block in Chile in the southern region of Magallanes. The Palos Quemados field is the first gas discovery in the Tranquilo Block by GeoPark and the first hydrocarbon discovery in the Magallanes Fold and Thrust Belt in more than 40 years.

• Monday, February 25th 2013 - 11:21 UTC

  Brazil and Nigeria sign accord to boost trade, investment and energy cooperation

  

  Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff met with Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Saturday to discuss boosting trade and investment between the two countries, particularly in the energy sector and cooperation in several other fields. The brief visit was sufficient for the two presidents to sign an ambitious memorandum of understanding.

• Monday, February 25th 2013 - 06:43 UTC

  For second time in a decade India/Latam trade in 2012 was down

  

  India's trade with Latin America has gone down in 2012 in comparison to 2011. This is the second time the trade went down in the last decade when it was steadily growing. The earlier decline was in 2009 at the height of global crisis. Trade with the top seven countries of the region declined 15% from 25.274bn dollars in 2011 to 21.302bn in 2012.

• Monday, February 25th 2013 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentina and ‘holdout hedge funds’ prepare for the final clash this week

  

  The long-awaited showdown in a US appeals court this week pits Argentina against a group of investors who refused to swap their debt after the country's historic 2002 default.

• Saturday, February 23rd 2013 - 06:34 UTC

  “Uruguayan government in deep crisis”, admits Mujica with a split cabinet and two economic teams

  

  “The Uruguayan government is in deep crisis” admitted President Jose Mujica following an open clash between ministers that called for an urgent meeting of the cabinet and half way had to be adjourned on fears that recriminations could get out of control. A recess was ordered but the squabbling through the press continued and the exposed deep rift remains more than a challenge.

• Saturday, February 23rd 2013 - 06:19 UTC

  Moody’s cuts UK credit rating to Aa1 from AAA, first time since 1978

  

  Moody's Investors Service on Friday cut the United Kingdom's credit rating to Aa1 from AAA for the first time since 1978, citing weakness in the nation's medium-term growth outlook that it now expects to extend for a number of years.

• Friday, February 22nd 2013 - 18:25 UTC

  Falklands confirms £ 26m fishing and oil ‘windfalls’ only for the Consolidated Fund

  

  The Falkland Islands government at a public meeting defended their position of not including in the annual budget what they described as ‘windfalls’ from fishing and oil and instead adding the ‘exceptional” excess revenue to the Consolidated Fund.