Economy

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 03:03 UTC

  Mexican regulators impose highest fine ever on HSBC for money-laundering

  

  Mexican regulators have imposed a fine of 27.5 million dollars on banking giant HSBC for its failure to comply with money-laundering regulations.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 02:35 UTC

  Despite profits in Brazil, Santander bank profits halved following write-downs

  

  Profits at Spanish banking giant Santander have halved after it made more write-downs against unrecoverable loans secured against property. The bank, which is the Euro zone biggest, said first-half profits halved to 1.7bn Euros in the six months to the end of June.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 02:12 UTC

  Mujica forecasts Venezuela will rapidly become Uruguay’s third trade partner

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly defended the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur and forecasted that in a short time the country will become Uruguay’s third trade associate, behind China and Brazil.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 01:25 UTC

  Rousseff pledges to tackle the “Brazil cost” with new stimulus package

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Friday her government will unveil more measures to stimulate the economy in the next few months, including investments in ports, airports, railroads and highways.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 01:13 UTC

  Plans for a 300bn Euro rescue of Spain and writing down of Greek bonds

  

  Spain has for the first time conceded it might need a full EU/IMF bailout worth 300 billion Euros if its borrowing costs remain unsustainably high, a Euro zone official was quoted in the Madrid media.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 00:32 UTC

  US economy playing against President Obama’s re-election bid

  

  The White House cut its outlook for US growth in 2012 and 2013 on Friday, hours after data showed the economy grew at a tepid pace in the second quarter, raising concerns about a slowdown that could mar President Barack Obama's re-election chances.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 00:10 UTC

  Russia investing heavily in becoming self sufficient in beef production

  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin has an ambitious plan to cut his country's 3 billion dollars annual import bill for beef. He even aspires to return Russia's beef industry to its pre-revolutionary stature.

• Friday, July 27th 2012 - 23:59 UTC

  “Veggie” diet blamed for poor performance of China’s women volleyball team

  

  Fearing tainted meat, China's women's volleyball team has stuck to a strict vegetarian diet for the last three weeks, which the team's coach is now blaming for his athletes' abysmal performance.

• Friday, July 27th 2012 - 05:50 UTC

  US urges Argentina to normalize relations with international financial community

  

  US Department of State Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Mike Hammer urged the Argentine Government to normalize its relations with the international financial community and confirmed President Obama’s administration intention of having “the best possible relations” with Argentina.

• Friday, July 27th 2012 - 05:17 UTC

  Cuba to end Soviet-style economy and will implement market friendly policies

  

  Cuba adopted a new tax code this week and said it would loosen regulations on some state companies while turning others into cooperatives, as one of the world's last Soviet-style economies moves in a more market-friendly direction.