Economy

• Monday, May 7th 2012 - 04:59 UTC

  Soybeans becomes Uruguay’s main export item, estimated at 1.1bn in 2012

  

  Soybeans are set to establish several records this year in Uruguay: exports will be above one billion dollars; for the first time the oilseed will be the leading export item of the country displacing beef and prospects for the next season are that over a million hectares will be planted.

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 06:01 UTC

  Brazil received 5.4 million tourists in 2011 with Argentina providing 1.6 million

  

  Brazil received more than 5.4 million international visitors in 2011, up 5.35 from 2010, the Tourism Ministry announced Friday. The number of visitors from other South American nations rose from 2.384 million in 2010 to 2.628 million in 2011.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 17:26 UTC

  Brazil applies radical changes to deposits policy to further cut basic interest rates

  

  Brazil will cut returns on new deposits to savings accounts, thereby paving the way for the central bank to further cut its benchmark lending rate, Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 17:16 UTC

  Brazil committed to compete with China in Africa for resources and growing market

  

  Brazil pledged major investment and technology transfer to Africa to repay a “solidarity debt” from a country with a huge black population to the poorest but resource-rich continent.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 06:19 UTC

  Uruguay’s April inflation spikes and remains well above the annual target

  

  Uruguay's annual consumer inflation accelerated in April owing to a big increase in food, clothing and transportation prices, reported the government’s statistics office, INE on Thursday.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 00:36 UTC

  ECB calls on governments to put “growth at the centre of the agenda”

  

  The European Central Bank, meeting in Spain on Thursday, held interest rates at historic lows but insisted it was up to governments to find ways of boosting growth without busting fiscal rules.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 00:31 UTC

  Bank of England governor admits more should have done to prevent the crisis

  

  After coming under fire for years for refusing to accept responsibility for the crisis, Bank of England governor Mervyn King said in his BBC Today Program Lecture that the BoE should have done more -- but added that the bank's hands had been somewhat tied.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 00:26 UTC

  BG selling lucrative asset in Brazil to focus on oil and gas fields

  

  UK gas producer BG Group has announced a deal to sell its stake in Brazil's Comgas to Sao Paulo-based Cosan for 1.8bn dollars. BG said it expected to deal to be completed by the end of the year.

• Thursday, May 3rd 2012 - 23:23 UTC

  FDI in several Latam countries during 2011 marked a historic record

  

  Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, in Latin America and the Caribbean during 2011 reached 153.448 billion dollars, which represents 10% of the global total flows according to a report presented on Thursday by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

• Thursday, May 3rd 2012 - 07:19 UTC

  Brazil working on package to further lower interest rates without scaring savers

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff plans to unveil changes to rules related to savings accounts on Thursday, government sources said, a key move to pave the way for lower interest rates in Latin America's largest economy.