Economy

• Thursday, April 5th 2012 - 17:07 UTC

  Dragui confirms extraordinary long-term funding to financial system will continue

  

  European Central Bank President Mario Draghi dismissed a German-led push for the bank to start planning a retreat from emergency crisis-fighting, but stressed it was keeping a close eye on price pressures.

• Thursday, April 5th 2012 - 15:36 UTC

  IMF warns world recovery is very fragile; policy makers should not become complacent

  

  IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the world economy is still in recession and the recovery remains fragile as she warned that, although some progress has been made, the global economic situation is not ideal yet. “We should not delude ourselves into a false sense of security,” she alerted.

• Thursday, April 5th 2012 - 14:45 UTC

  Green light for huge controversial hydroelectric project in Chilean Patagonia

  

  Chile's Supreme Court Wednesday removed the last legal obstacle to building a giant 2.9 billion dollars hydroelectric complex in the Patagonian wilderness, rejecting a bid by environmentalists to block it.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 08:42 UTC

  Mujica will try and convince Brazil to open Mercosur to third countries

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica arrives Thursday in neighbouring Brazil to discuss with his peer Dilma Rousseff trade expansion, productive and energy complementation and above all opening Mercosur to third countries in search of new markets.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 04:12 UTC

  Argentina announced heavy fine for mobile phone provider that left 16 million clients out of service

  

  The Argentine government said on Tuesday it will sanction heavily the local unit of Spanish Telecommunications Company Telefonica SA mobile phone service provider after a service disruption left more than 16 million clients without phone and data service for several hours.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 04:08 UTC

  China says emerging economies suffering from major capital inflows caused by US monetary policy

  

  China’s central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said the US Federal Reserve must consider responsibility of the global effects of its actions as emerging-market economies suffer from capital inflows.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 04:04 UTC

  Spain with no relief: record unemployment and soaring national debt

  

  Spain says its national debt will spiral sharply higher this year as data showed unemployment hit a record high in March, complicating efforts to stabilise the country's strained finances.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 02:39 UTC

  Fitch ratings says Brazil’s current slowdown is cyclical and likely to return to potential

  

  According to a special report published Tuesday on Brazil, Fitch Ratings believes that the country's current slowdown is cyclical in nature and that economic growth is likely to return to its potential rate.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 02:28 UTC

  A decade later S&P lifts Uruguay’s rating to investment grade

  

  Uruguay’s credit rating was raised one level by Standard & Poor’s, which means the country has returned to investment grade for the first time in a decade.

• Wednesday, April 4th 2012 - 02:20 UTC

  Brazil soy farmers expected to plant a record acreage after this year’s dismal crop

  

  Brazilian farmers will likely plant at least 26.2 million hectares with soybeans in the next crop, up 1.1 million hectares from the current 2011-12 crop, forecaster Agroconsult said Tuesday.