Economy

• Wednesday, April 25th 2012 - 04:41 UTC

  Vietnam displaces Australia as world’s largest wood chip exporter

  

  Wood chip trade flows in the Pacific Rim have changed substantially the past five years. Vietnam, Chile, Thailand and Uruguay have all been increasing their shipments of chips, while Australia and South Africa have been losing their market share as fibre suppliers to the pulp mills in Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

• Wednesday, April 25th 2012 - 00:43 UTC

  Mad-cow disease case in California dairy farm; first in US in six years

  

  The first US case of mad cow disease in six years has been found in a dairy cow in central California, before it entered the human food chain and posed any threat to consumers, officials said.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 21:25 UTC

  Strong sterling and UK prices have vacation Britons fleeing to the continent

  

  Soaring sterling rates are giving Britons and Gibraltarians as much as 14% more cash for their summer 2012 trips to Euro Europe compared with last year, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 20:58 UTC

  EU preparing to lodge a complaint at WTO against Argentina import restrictions

  

  The European Union is planning to lodge a complaint at the World Trade Organization over Argentina's import restrictions and is seeking other trading partners to back its presentation, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday according to news agencies.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 20:51 UTC

  Cuba plans private sector to take over 50% of the economy in five years

  

  Cuba will move nearly 50% of the state's economic activity to the “non-state” sector a senior Communist party official said, the latest signal the island is headed toward a mixed economy.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 06:20 UTC

  S&P downgrades Repsol’s rating; sees no compensation payment in near-term

  

  Rating Agency S&P announced on Thursday it was downgrading Spain-based energy company Repsol-YPF after Argentina’s government announced the expropriation of 51% of its shares. The rating was lowered from BBB to BBB (minus), the agency said in a statement.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 06:16 UTC

  BMW sales in Brazil drop 30% because of tax rise; factory investment on hold

  

  Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), the world’s largest luxury automaker, posted a 30% drop in first-quarter sales in Brazil due to a tax rise for imported cars, said Henning Dornbusch, the company’s country head.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 03:50 UTC

  Former Beatle Paul breaks all records in Uruguay including with the taxman

  

  Former Beatle Paul McCartney paid almost 2.3 million dollars in national and municipal taxes during his only performance in Uruguay last April 15, which was considered by far the most spectacular concert in recent times in the country.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 01:09 UTC

  Setback for Spain: EU confirms trade talks with Mercosur, including Argentina

  

  A member of the European Union assured it is not possible to negotiate an agreement between the EU and Mercosur without Argentina, as the Spanish Government planned after the country’s decision to expropriate YPF.

• Tuesday, April 24th 2012 - 00:52 UTC

  Spain back in recession and already high unemployment expected to increase

  

  Spain's jobs-scarce economy plunged back into recession in the first quarter of 2012 as employment slumped even further, the Bank of Spain said on Monday. Barely two years after emerging from the last downturn Spain slid into recession again with two consecutive quarters of economic contraction the central bank said in a report.