Economy

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:09 UTC

  S&P upgrades Brazil’s ratings based on “good long-term growth prospects”

  

  Brazil local-currency credit rating is being reviewed for an upgrade by Standard & Poor’s, which cited the country’s economic stability. The rating was affirmed at BBB+, the third-lowest investment grade, S&P said in a statement.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:04 UTC

  Brazil ‘unofficially’ lowers 2011 growth estimate to 3.7% from 4%

  

  The Brazilian government has unofficially cut its outlook for 2011 GDP growth given a slowing world economy and unsustainably fast expansion last year, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:01 UTC

  Tim Cook, the man who replaces Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO

  

  Steve Jobs took home 1 dollar a year for serving as Apple's CEO. The company's new leader, Tim Cook, is getting a richer deal. Apple's board has given Cook a restricted stock grant of 1 million shares, Apple reported late Friday in a regulatory filing. Those shares have a market value of 383.6 million dollars, based on the stock's closing price on Friday.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 15:56 UTC

  Bernanke defers announcement; sends US Congress strong message on fiscal deficit

  

  The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has signalled that the US central bank will not take any immediate action to boost growth. In a keenly anticipated speech, Mr Bernanke simply said the Fed had a “range of tools that could be used to provide additional monetary stimulus”.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 04:09 UTC

  Argentina blasts Moody’s for questioning soundness of the banking system

  

  Argentina’s Central Bank’s Governor (BCRA) Mercedes Marcó del Pont said on Thursday that the Argentine banking system “is in its best historical levels of liquidity, solvency and default rates” referring to an earlier report from Moody’s rating agency.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 03:41 UTC

  US weekly jobless claims up; fears of slowdown conditions labour market

  

  Initial US weekly jobless claims surged to 417,000 last week, dimming hopes of an imminent recovery in the jobs market, the US Labour Department said Thursday.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 03:22 UTC

  Mercosur/Israel trade deal comes into effect following Argentina’s signature

  

  A free trade agreement between Israel and Argentina is set to come into effect on September 9, the Israeli Industry, Trade and Labour Ministry announced this week.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 03:08 UTC

  Warren Buffett comes to the rescue of Bank of America

  

  US billionaire Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway has announced it is investing 5 billion dollars in Bank of America. News of the famous investor's move sent Bank of America's shares up by 25%, before moving back to 10% ahead.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 02:52 UTC

  Mining companies agree to pay Peru an extra billion dollars annually

  

  Peru has reached an agreement with mining companies that will raise the industry’s annual payments to the government to about one billion dollars, the government said on Thursday, fulfilling a campaign promise by President Ollanta Humala.

• Thursday, August 25th 2011 - 06:47 UTC

  Unasur agrees to greater economic coordination but remains divided on Libya

  

  Union of South American Nations, Unasur, Foreign Affairs ministers agreed Wednesday in Buenos Aires to increase economic coordination and send monitoring missions to regional elections but could not reach a common position on the Libyan situation.