Economy

• Friday, December 2nd 2011 - 00:04 UTC

  Brazil announces measures to stimulate economy and domestic consumption

  

  Brazil's Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced Thursday a package of measures aimed at stimulating the economy and domestic consumption, amid an international crisis mainly affecting developed nations as a consequence of the Euro situation.

• Thursday, December 1st 2011 - 06:02 UTC

  Brazil has the highest real interest rate among 40 leading economies

  

  The Brazilian Central bank latest decision to lower the basic interest rate by half a percentage point to 11%, confirms Brazil leadership as the country with the highest real interest rates in the world. An honour it has held interruptedly for the last 23 months.

• Thursday, December 1st 2011 - 05:53 UTC

  US and EU stock soar following on central banks’ decision to provide dollars

  

  Global stocks and the Euro rallied on Wednesday after the world's leading central banks agreed to cut the cost for European banks to borrow much-needed dollars.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 23:08 UTC

  Brazil cuts basic rate by half a point to 11% and says inflation converging to target

  

  Brazil’s central bank cut borrowing costs by half a point for a third straight meeting as a global economic slowdown threatens with a slump in domestic demand. The bank’s board voted on Wednesday unanimously to reduce the benchmark Selic rate to 11% from 11.5%, as had been anticipated by markets.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 21:31 UTC

  Latam financial system ‘stable and solid’ but weak in consumer banking, says World Bank

  

  While the economic crisis relentlessly ravages Europe and the United States, Latin American countries anxiously wait on the sidelines. The crisis could dampen the regional trend of solid growth during the past decade.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 16:04 UTC

  China changes policy: eases credit and lowers bank reserves ratio

  

  China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for its commercial lenders on Wednesday for the first time in nearly three years to ease credit strains and shore up an economy running at its weakest pace since 2009.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 09:04 UTC

  China becomes Peru’s main trade partner and a leading investor

  

  Peruvian Prime Minister Salomon Lerner said that China’s direct investments in the country would increase between 30% and 40% in the next two years. China became this year Peru’s main trade partner.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 06:03 UTC

  Improved transparency for IDB loan operations and activities

  

  The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) became a signatory of the International Aid Transparency Initiative, a voluntary, multi-stakeholder effort to make information about aid spending easier to find, use and compare.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 06:00 UTC

  Euro zone ministers looking to the IMF to help boost rescue fund

  

  Euro zone ministers agreed on Tuesday to ramp up the firepower of their rescue fund but couldn't say by how much and raised the possibility of asking the IMF for more help after Italy's borrowing costs hit a Euro lifetime high of nearly 8%.

• Wednesday, November 30th 2011 - 05:53 UTC

  S&P reduces credit ratings of big US/EU banks following overhaul of criteria

  

  Standard & Poor's reduced on Tuesday its credit ratings on several big banks in the United States and Europe as the result of a sweeping overhaul of its ratings criteria.