Economy

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 20:14 UTC

  Mercosur has only benefited Brazil in the last ten years with a surplus of 36.8bn

  

  Brazil is the only country that in the last ten years has benefited from Mercosur with an intra-zone trade surplus of 36.8 billion dollars while the other three full members, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay have accumulated huge deficits in the same period, according to Argentine economist Orlando Ferreres a regular columnist from La Nacion with graduate studies in Harvard.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 17:26 UTC

  Rice supply outstrips demand despite lower 2012 production according to FAO

  

  The United Nations’ food agency cut its 2012 global rice production forecast but said supply would still outstrip demand and that there was no increased risk of a food crisis as long as countries do not resort to export bans.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 17:13 UTC

  Argentine supermarkets must keep records of clients that spend plus 210 dollars

  

  Argentine supermarkets must keep records of sales of plus 1.000 Pesos which must be available to tax inspectors, according to the latest decision from AFIP the tax revenue office. A thousand Pesos at the official rate is equivalent to 210 dollars and in the parallel 140 dollars.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 17:06 UTC

  Argentine foreign currency credit cards included in the strict dollar “clamp”

  

  Credit card companies operating in Argentina have also fallen under the net work of the tax office AFIP, and now must request authorization and approval to purchase US dollars to balance their clients’ accounts.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 08:41 UTC

  Food inflation in Latin America reached 8.9% in June, the highest in 2012

  

  Food inflation in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 8.9% in June compared to the same month in 2011, which means the highest so far this year, according to a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 08:33 UTC

  Uruguay reacts with silence to repeated Argentine provocations

  

  The Uruguayan government said on Monday there will be no public statements on the latest “situations” with Argentina, and Uruguay will keep to what was agreed at presidential level during the last (31 July) Mercosur extraordinary meeting in Brasilia.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 08:25 UTC

  Seeds market clash: Monsanto wins one billion dollars lawsuit to DuPont

  

  Monsanto, the world's largest seed company won a one billion dollars victory over its arch rival in a lawsuit concerning patents in the agricultural seed market. The victory, concerning genetically modified seeds that allow crops to tolerate weed killer, should have little immediate impact in that lucrative marketplace.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 08:19 UTC

  US regulator claims Standard Chartered bank laundered 250bn dollars for Iran

  

  Standard Chartered bank illegally “schemed” with Iran to launder as much as 250bn dollars for nearly a decade, a US regulator says. The New York State Department of Financial Services said that the bank hid 60.000 secret transactions for “Iranian financial institutions” that were subject to US economic sanctions.

• Tuesday, August 7th 2012 - 08:14 UTC

  China central bank anticipates injecting more liquidity in second half of 2012

  

  China's central bank said on Sunday it will strengthen the fine-tuning of its monetary policy in the second half of this year, indicating as many analysts believe that more liquidity may be injected into the world's second largest economy.

• Monday, August 6th 2012 - 22:14 UTC

  Bernanke appeals to the Himalayas to help explain current economic duress

  

  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that although broad measurements of the United States economy point to recovery, many people and businesses are facing tough times.