Economy

• Monday, December 17th 2012 - 21:15 UTC

  Brazil and Argentina bottom of the list in terms of competitiveness

  

  Brazil ranks near the bottom among fourteen emerging powers in terms of competitiveness, due to high capital and labor costs as well as inadequate infrastructure, according to a study commissioned by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and published by the Folha de Sao Paulo daily.

• Monday, December 17th 2012 - 20:53 UTC

  US consumer prices falls in November because of sharp drop in gasoline prices

  

  US consumers prices fell in November due to a sharp drop in petrol prices, according to official figures, as inflation in the economy remained weak. The consumer price index fell 0.3% from October, the first decline since May, the US Labour Department said.

• Monday, December 17th 2012 - 06:23 UTC

  HSBC Argentina also fined for failing to report suspicious transactions

  

  Argentina slapped a 30 million Peso (6 million dollars) fine on a local subsidiary of global banking giant HSBC for failing to report suspicious transactions, authorities here said Sunday.

• Monday, December 17th 2012 - 06:20 UTC

  China quarantines Argentine corn because of unapproved genetically modified strains

  

  Chinese authorities quarantined two containers holding corn from Argentina, after detecting genetically modified strains that had not been approved beforehand, alleged the Chinese buyer.

• Monday, December 17th 2012 - 06:03 UTC

  Talvi says Uruguayan government reacts with ‘authoritarian ticks” to criticism

  

  The head of an economics think-tank said that the Uruguayan government reactions to his criticisms of the management of the country’s economy are a kind of “authoritarian tick” which pretends to censor all those who do not share the “official truths”.

• Saturday, December 15th 2012 - 21:06 UTC

  Argentina pays GDP-linked bonds; Central bank reserves fall to lowest since 2007

  

  Argentina made payments of over 3.5 billion dollars on Friday in GDP-linked bonds which refer to the 2005 and 2010 rescheduling agreed with creditors who originally held 2001/02 defaulted sovereign bonds. At the same bank the Central bank revealed that international reserves have fallen to its lowest since 2007.

• Saturday, December 15th 2012 - 21:04 UTC

  GeoPark drills new successful oil well in Colombia

  

  GeoPark Holdings Limited announced the successful drilling, testing and putting into production of a new oil well in the Tua oil field on the Llanos 34 Block in Colombia. GeoPark that also has drilled for oil in southern Chile and Argentina operates and has a 45% working interest in the Llanos 34 Block.

• Saturday, December 15th 2012 - 20:59 UTC

  Petrobras selling its assets in Argentina; YPF one of the interested companies

  

  Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras is putting its Argentine assets up for sale and will start accepting bids from interested buyers as early as this week, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion reported Friday.

• Saturday, December 15th 2012 - 06:33 UTC

  Argentina’s official November inflation 0.9%; half the 1.81% congressional index

  

  Argentina's official inflation was 0.9% in November, rising slightly from October's 0.8% rate, the government stats office Indec said on Friday.

• Saturday, December 15th 2012 - 06:31 UTC

  Mexico ready to drop WTO complaint after reaching auto accord with Argentina

  

  Mexico said it would drop a complaint over import curbs against Argentina before the World Trade Organization after the two countries signed a more limited automobile trade pact.