The International Monetary Fund urged the United States to swiftly raise the debt ceiling to ward off risks of a credit downgrade that could damage the global economy.
Argentina's trade surplus fell 22% on the year in June. Trade surplus last month 1.02 billion dollars, down from a revised 1.31 billion in June 2010, according to the national statistics agency, Indec.
A trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union would significantly expand European investment given the increase in bilateral trade, but ‘there’s too much fear from both sides’, according to Adrian van den Hover head of international relations for Business Europe.
US President Barack Obama reiterated on Sunday his opposition to any short-term plan to raise the US debt ceiling, while Republicans insisted on a two-step solution, a White House official said.
The head of the Argentine Rural Society, Hugo Biolcati carried out a harsh speech against the administration of President Cristina Fernandez saying it was time “to stop punishing farmlands and Argentina”.
President Barrack Obama said he would be meeting with congressional leaders, at the White House at 1100 (1500 GMT) on Saturday. On Friday Republican House Speaker John Boehner walked away from crunch debt ceiling talks with the President.
Former president Lula da Silva described as ‘nonsense’ the biblical statement that the poor will be “blessed with treasure in heaven” and strongly supported the policies of his government (2003/2010) which helped millions in Brazil lift from poverty.
The IMF confirmed that Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner phoned incoming Managing Director Christine Lagarde last week, a few hours before the Fund reiterated its objections to Argentina’s official statistical data.
The giant miner BHP Billiton announced this week a 129% increase in the mineral resource at and around Chile’s Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine.
Brazil’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest since January in spite of efforts by policy makers to cool growth and inflation in Latin America’s biggest economy. The jobless rate fell to 6.2% in June, from 6.4% in May and 7% a year earlier, the national statistics agency said in a report distributed in Rio de Janeiro.