Economy

• 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.

• Monday, April 23rd 2012 - 09:40 UTC

  IMF governing panel calls for more action from Euro zone to prevent recession

  

  Europe was pressed by other world powers to take strong measures to fix its debt-heavy economy and restore growth to a level that would lift the cloud hanging over the fragile global recovery.

• Sunday, April 22nd 2012 - 23:42 UTC

  Argentina February economic activity expands 5.2%, but surprises ahead for industry

  

  Argentina's economy grew at an annual rate of 5.2% in February according to the country’s stats office Indec monthly economic activity report Emae, reflecting good performances in construction and manufacturing. But prospects for the industrial sector could have some surprises.
  The Emae indicator rose 0.3% in seasonally adjusted terms from January, Indec added.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 07:36 UTC

  Fitch warns Argentina on “growing diplomatic isolation” and “investment shortages”

  

  In an article posted on the Fitch Wire credit market commentary page the rating agency slammed Argentina for its government’s decision to seize a majority stake in YPF from Spain’s Repsol as announced by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Monday.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 07:31 UTC

  Astori tells Spanish businesses “Uruguay, an attractive and safe” country for investors

  

  Vice president Danilo Astori currently on a business trip to Spain described Uruguay as an “attractive and safe” country to invest given its macroeconomic solidness, strength of its institutions and stimuli for investors, both domestic and from overseas.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 07:07 UTC

  Emerging powers committed to IMF but insist on less European predominance

  

  Major emerging powers stood ready on Friday to pledge money to bolster the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting war chest, though Brazil was holding out for promises that their voting power at the global lender would increase.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 06:57 UTC

  Uruguay and Brazil agree to jointly develop and expand wind power

  

  Uruguay and Brazil agreed this week to jointly set up a 100MW wind farm in Uruguayan territory demanding an investment of 200 million dollars and which should become operational by 2013.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 05:19 UTC

  Argentine import restrictions trigger protests from port of Buenos Aires workers

  

  Freight truckers and customs’ brokers’ staff paralyzed the Buenos Aires port five terminals for a second day running to protest restrictions on import trade recently implemented, which has caused a collapse in port activities and thus jobs.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 04:03 UTC

  Argentina minimizes impact of Spain’s first retaliatory measures

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández minimized Spain’s decision to reduce the bio-diesel imports as a retaliation over the expropriation of YPF and called for “calm” after assuring that Argentina “is in condition to absorb” that production in the domestic market.