Economy

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 21:56 UTC

  Chinese New Year helps spur manufacturers’ optimism

  

  China has seen an improvement in a key measure of manufacturing, boosting optimism that steady economic growth will continue into 2012. The purchasing managers' index rose to 50.3 in December from 49 in November, the statistical office said. A reading of more than 50 shows expansion.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 21:48 UTC

  Merkel and Sarkozy prepare for yet another round of Euro-rescue talks

  

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have said they will meet next week to discuss the Euro zone debt crisis. Their first meeting of 2012 comes after all EU countries except the UK agreed to work together on a new treaty to stabilise the Euro zone.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 21:44 UTC

  Venezuelan economy expands 4% in 2010 and inflation reaches 27.6%

  

  Inflation in Venezuela during last year reached 27.6%, which is 0.7 percentage points more than in 2010, according to a preliminary report from Venezuela’s central bank. President Nelson Merentes said that the consumer prices index “was associated to the upwards pressure generated on wholesale prices by a greater dynamism from domestic aggregate demand”.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 20:39 UTC

  Fears of another foot and mouth disease outbreak in Paraguay

  

  Paraguay’ Livestock Sanitary Office has confirmed the isolation of a cattle farm in the north of the country where an apparent outbreak of foot and mouth disease has been reported. The farm is approximately 35 kilometres from the outbreak reported last September.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:41 UTC

  Brazil’s Bovespa index declined 18.1% in 2011 closing at 56.754 points

  

  In spite of a slight gain in the last trading day of 2011 the Brazilian stocks benchmark index experienced an 18.1% decline in the twelve months on concerns that Europe's debt troubles could lead to another global recession.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:30 UTC

  Brazil planning additional cuts of 32bn dollars in 2012 budget

  

  Brazil's government may cut as much as much 60 billion Reais (32 billion dollars) from spending in 2012 in an effort to control its deficit and inflation, the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported, citing unnamed Finance Ministry officials.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:21 UTC

  Saudi dairy farm buys 30.000 acres of prime land in Argentina

  

  Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company announced it was buying Argentine farm operator Fondomonte for 83 million dollars to secure access to a supply of animal feed. The acquisition will give Riyadh-based Almarai Co. control of roughly 30,000 acres of farmland just ahead of tough new limits to be imposed by Argentina's government on foreign ownership of productive land.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 06:15 UTC

  Argentine central bank confirms (unorthodox) growth policies for 2012

  

  Argentina's economy should expand by 4.5% to 7.5% in 2012 according to the Central bank that also warned about the threat of the consequences of the Euro crisis. The bank’s latest approved monetary program states that the policies that have helped Argentina's economy boom over the last nine years will remain largely in place.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 03:56 UTC

  Peruvian fish exports soar in volume and income: 2.8bn dollars in ten months

  

  Peruvian fish exports generated during last October generated 206.2 million dollars which represents 42.1% more than in the same month of 2010 (145.1 million), while export volume jumped 42.8% from 89.200 to 127.400 tons, the Ministry of Production reported. The increases were primarily due to higher sales of fishmeal.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 00:56 UTC

  Merkel calls for closer EU cooperation to rescue the Euro

  

  Europe must cooperate more closely if it wants the Euro to succeed as its shared currency, and it still has a long way to go to overcome its sovereign debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her New Year's Eve address.