Economy

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 22:42 UTC

  Brazil’s August unemployment stable at 6% in tight labour market

  

  Brazil’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6% in August, a record low for the month while average real wages rose 0.5% from the previous months to 1,629.40 Reais (839.16 US dollars) a month, the government statistics agency IBGE report showed.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 22:17 UTC

  IMF re-activates resource pool of 571 billion for another six months

  

  The International Monetary Fund re-activated this week a 571 billion dollars resource pool to ensure it has funds to help cover Europe's worsening sovereign-debt crisis. The IMF extended activation of its so-called New Arrangements to Borrow for a six-month period from October.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 21:52 UTC

  Brazil to the rescue of the Real which is down 17% against the dollar in 4 weeks

  

  Brazil's central bank unexpectedly acted to halt the currency's slide on Thursday, highlighting growing concern among officials that the global financial crisis is damaging Brazil's economy and could cause a potentially destructive spurt in inflation.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 08:36 UTC

  IMF will use private and provincial data to gauge Argentine economy

  

  The International Monetary Fund will use estimates from the private sector and provincial governments to measure economic growth and inflation in Argentina, underscoring the IMF distrust of official data.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2011 - 07:42 UTC

  Latin America and the Caribbean’s Long-Term Growth: Made in China?

  

  Robust growth over the past decade in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has had one new, key driver: China. The region’s relationship with the Asian giant has proved to be a critical source of stability, both during the global economic crisis of two years ago, the greatest since the Great Depression, and even the current market turmoil that is rolling across Europe and the United States.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 21:28 UTC

  Fed injects more ‘accommodation’ liquidity to bonds’ market and housing

  

  With three dissenting members the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday further efforts to prop the US economy launching an accommodation program to put more downward pressure on long-term interest rates and increase its support for housing.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 20:39 UTC

  FMD in Paraguay leaves 5.000 workers redundant and 300 million dollars losses

  

  An estimated 5.000 workers will be left redundant for two months and losses could easily reach 300 million dollars because of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Paraguay that has banned exports, revealed Wednesday Luis Pettengill, president of the country’s Meat Chamber.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 06:14 UTC

  Argentina to pay sovereign debts in 2012 with 5.7bn from the Central bank

  

  The Argentine government plans to trim its dependence on central bank reserves to pay debt next year after tapping savings to slow depreciation of the Peso, according to its draft 2012 budget.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  “Negative political considerations” downgraded Italy’s rating says Berlusconi

  

  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was quick to reject a long-feared assessment from ratings agency Standard & Poor’s that saw Italy’s credit rating downgraded by one notch on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 02:10 UTC

  Roubini suggests Greece default on its debts and follow Argentina’s 2001 example

  

  The economist who predicted the credit crunch and financial crisis has recommended that Greece leave the Euro, default on its debts and return to the drachma.