Economy

• Tuesday, January 3rd 2012 - 03:18 UTC

  Rousseff promises “to protect” Brazil’s economy, domestic market and jobs

  

  Brazil is moving into an ‘era of prosperity’ characterized by ‘income distribution and a notorious drop in inequalities” said President Dilma Rousseff in her first 2012 radio edition of ‘Enjoying coffee with the President’, where she also dared to use the word ‘protection’ in reference to jobs and the domestic market.

• Tuesday, January 3rd 2012 - 03:12 UTC

  Brazil trade surplus soars to 30bn, the highest since 2007

  

  Brazil's 2011 trade surplus soared 47.8% to nearly 30 billion dollars, compared with the previous year, the highest since 2007, with record exports and imports, official data showed Monday.

• Tuesday, January 3rd 2012 - 03:07 UTC

  Uruguay’s trade deficit increases fourfold in 2011 to 549 million dollars

  

  Uruguay’s trade deficit soared to 549 million dollars in 2011 because of an increase in imports of 23.6%, far ahead of exports rise, 18.1%, according to the Uruguayan government foreign trade institute Uruguay XXI.

• Monday, January 2nd 2012 - 21:59 UTC

  Spanish government confirms Euro zone fourth largest economy is in recession

  

  Spain’s economy is forecasted to contract in the first quarter of 2012 after shrinking in the previous six months admitted Economy Minister Luis de Guindos confirming analysts’ expectations that the Euro zone fourth largest economy is already in recession.

• 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.