Economy

• Tuesday, December 11th 2012 - 13:15 UTC

  St Helena insists with close business links with the Falkland Islands

  

  Former Managing Director of the Falkland Island Development Corporation, Julian Morris, now Executive Officer of Economic Development on St Helena, has been caught up in a tight schedule of meetings during his visit over the past week, to encourage Falklands’ business investment in St Helena.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 20:10 UTC

  YPF CEO Galuccio travels to Norway to discuss partnership with Statoil

  

  Argentina’ nationalized oil and gas corporation YPF is said to be in talks with Norway’s Statoil about a possible partnership as part of its 37 billion dollars drive to develop Argentina’s energy reserves. It is close to signing deals with US oil giant Chevron as well as Bridas Corp, the Chinese-Argentine joint venture, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 20:05 UTC

  Brazil plans to invest 26bn dollars in four years to modernize ports

  

  Brazil's government has unveiled plans to invest 54.2 billion Reais (approx 26 billion dollars) over the next four years to modernize the country's ports, whose high costs and notorious delays are eroding the country’s competitive edge.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 18:48 UTC

  European Central Bank says it has ‘much to learn’ from Latam robust financial systems

  

  The Vice-president of the European central bank Vitor Constancio said the EU has much to learn from Latin America which has coped with successive economic and financial crises and has managed to create robust financial structures which have made the region’s system even more resistant to outside shocks.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 05:51 UTC

  Dollar clamp represents the failure of Argentina’s energy policy, says Lavagna

  

  Former Economy minister Roberto Lavagna said that it will take Argentina “at least three years” to liberate the country from the ‘dollar clamp’ if as of this month it was decided to execute a policy to end restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 05:46 UTC

  Poor wheat crop in Argentina, which is expected to limit exports

  

  Argentina is expected to trim the quantity of 2012/2013 wheat destined for overseas shipment to 4.5 million tons from a previous 6 million due to a smaller than forecast harvest, a local newspaper reported on Saturday.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 05:34 UTC

  YPF confident it has partners to develop shale assets: Chevron and Bridas

  

  Argentine nationalized oil company YPF is in advanced discussions with potential partners on the development of its shale assets, the company's chief executive said. YPF could complete a deal with Bridas Energy Holdings Ltd. before the end of the year, while an agreement with US oil major Chevron Corp. will likely close in the first quarter of 2013, he said, adding that the deals would likely be similar in size.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 02:17 UTC

  US unemployment down to Dec 2008 level; 12 million still out a job

  

  The US announced that the labour market advanced sharply last month and its jobless rate fell to 7.7%, the lowest level in nearly four years. Washington said that late October's devastating super-storm Sandy had little effect on hiring, as employers unexpectedly added 146.000 new jobs in November, which was substantially more than economists had predicted.

• Saturday, December 8th 2012 - 03:47 UTC

  Bolivian industry warns about the Mercosur ‘straight jacket’ and protectionism

  

  The incorporation of Bolivia to Mercosur must not become a “straight jacket” that leaves the country with no margin to negotiate trade agreements with other regions, said the private business organization, Bolivia Foreign Trade Institution, IBCE

• Friday, December 7th 2012 - 17:24 UTC

  FAO food prices index down in November except for dairy

  

  The FAO Food Price Index averaged 211 points in November 2012, down 3 points (1.5%) from October and the lowest since June 2012. Except for dairy, international prices of all the commodity groups included in the Index fell in November, with sugar undergoing the sharpest dip, followed by oils and cereals. The decline puts the November index value nearly 3% below one year ago.