Economy

• 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.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 20:35 UTC

  Mujica warns Uruguay is going through an exceptional period, but it is also finite

  

  President Jose Mujica said Uruguay was going through an ‘exceptional’ period vis-à-vis the world crisis but also warned that exceptionality has limits and is not forever.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 20:28 UTC

  Uruguay central bank suggests “serene alert” attitude to address global crisis impact

  

  Uruguay must adopt an attitude of “serene alert” given the “uncertainty and uncommon volatility” prevailing in the world said central bank president Mario Bergara, underlining the country has reduced “vulnerabilities” considerably.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 20:21 UTC

  Russia will sacrifice 33.000 hogs because of African swine fever outbreak

  

  Russian veterinary services have ordered the termination of 33.000 hogs following an outbreak of Africa swine pest, in the region of Tyer, in the neighbouring province of the capital Moscow.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 19:51 UTC

  ECB to the rescue of Spain and Italy and avoid collapse of Euro zone

  

  European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged on Thursday to do whatever was necessary to protect the Euro zone from collapse, including acting to lower unreasonably high government borrowing costs.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 19:42 UTC

  FAO and OIE call on countries to comply with destruction of “rinderpest” virus samples

  

  The UN's food agency FAO and the OIE (Animal health organization) called on countries on to comply with a 2011 global moratorium and destroy potentially dangerous “rinderpest” virus samples or put them into safe storage.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 09:00 UTC

  EC criticizes US risk rating agencies handling of the Euro-zone crisis

  

  A top official from the European Commission was particularly critical of the credit risk rating agencies in their handling of the Euro crisis and Germany brushed aside the latest rating agencies announcement saying the country is in a very sound economic and financial situation.

• Thursday, July 26th 2012 - 08:50 UTC

  Evita Peron 100 Pesos bill to commemorate 60th anniversary of her death

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández unveiled a new 100 Pesos note featuring Eva Perón’s portrait to commemorate the 60th anniversary of her death in 1952. The Wednesday ceremony at Government House convened political allies and representatives from the banking and financial sectors.

• Wednesday, July 25th 2012 - 22:02 UTC

  China growth highly vulnerable to the Euro zone crisis warns the IMF

  

  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the worsening debt crisis in the Euro zone poses a “key risk” to China's growth. IMF added that China also faces domestic risks, not least from a sharper-than-anticipated decline in the property market.

• Wednesday, July 25th 2012 - 20:45 UTC

  Brazil wants WTO to sanction countries that manipulate their currencies

  

  Brazil’s delegate before the World Trade Organization said he was contacting other members of the organization so that sanctions are imposed on those countries which alter artificial money exchange rates that harm emerging countries, according to reports in the financial newspaper Valor Economico.