Economy

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 21:30 UTC

  Spain unemployment and economic situation only comparable to Franco’s days

  

  Spain's unemployment rate hit a record high in the third quarter, with one in four out of work and more expected to lose their jobs in 2013 as the next phase of government cutbacks kicks in.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 21:27 UTC

  End of bunga-bunga: ex PM Berlusconi handed jail sentence for tax fraud

  

  Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been handed a jail sentence and barred from office after being found guilty of tax fraud. The Milan court sentenced him to four years but later cut it to one year because of an amnesty law.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 21:15 UTC

  Chile places 1.5bn dollar-bonds at lowest financing cost of any emerging country

  

  Chile placed 1.5 billion in dollar-denominated bonds on international markets at historic yields, giving the country the lowest borrowing cost of any emerging country, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said on Thursday.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 20:39 UTC

  US Court rules against Argentina: all bondholders must be treated equally, including hold outs

  

  US appeals court ruled Argentina discriminated against bondholders who refused to take part in massive debt restructurings in 2005 and 2010 by deciding to pay them later than bondholders who agreed to participate.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 20:25 UTC

  Falklands estimates oil earnings at 25% of gross value of the resource extracted

  

  The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) is likely to earn somewhere in the region of 25 to 30% of the gross value of the oil resource spread over an expected field life of 25 years, it was stated at a public meeting in the capital Stanley earlier this week.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 07:24 UTC

  Falklands’ 2013 referendum: determined to be masters of their future

  

  A group of Central American journalists recently visited the Falkland Islands for a week as guests of the Foreign Office together with Bruce Callow from the UK Costa Rica embassy. During Mr Callow wrote in his blog about the experience regarding important issues for the Falklands such as the referendum next March on the future of the Islands.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 07:11 UTC

  Believe it or not: Falklands, a nation with a comfortable budget surplus

  

  The Falkland Islands Government accounts showed a surplus of £4.297 million compared to a revised budget surplus of £2.448 million (a positive performance of £3.190 million) for the first three months of the 2012/13 financial year, according to the Financial Management Report presented this week to the Standing Finance Committee.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 07:06 UTC

  Falklands to build a new deep-water port to cater for the oil and gas industry

  

  The Falkland Islands will have a new deep-water port facility capable of meeting the demands of all incumbent industries it was announced following this week's meeting of Executive Council (ExCo).

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 06:40 UTC

  Argentina admits Libertad is the 29th asset impound case by ‘vulture’ funds

  

  Argentina finally admitted that the retaining of the training frigate ARA Libertad in Ghana is not an isolated case since the so called ‘vulture’ funds have managed to impound a total of 28 assets including the presidential aircraft Tango 01, bank accounts, property and even a satellite.

• Friday, October 26th 2012 - 06:38 UTC

  Moody’s lowers Argentina’s foreign currency bonds’ ceiling to b3 from b2

  

  Moody's lowered on Thursday Argentina's foreign-currency bond ceiling to b3 from b2 in line with bonds in local currency on growing concerns of market access for the private sector and local governments.