Brazil's government may intervene in futures markets to weaken the Real, Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in London on the sidelines of a conference on Tuesday.
China has increased its main interest rates for the third time this year to try to curb inflation. Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, said its one-year lending rate would rise to 6.56% from 6.31% and its one-year deposit rate to 3.5% from 3.25%.
European Commission strongly criticised international credit ratings agencies following the downgrade of Portugal by Moody's. The Commission said the timing of the downgrade was questionable and raised the issue of the appropriateness of behaviour of the agencies in general.
Brazil's 2010-11 soy crop was larger than previously estimated, as higher productivity and a greater area of land planted with the oilseed resulted in record output, agricultural consultancy Celeres reported this week.
Poland which currently holds the rotating chair of the European Union presidency warned that any trade agreements with third parties must strictly abide by the EU sanitary and food security standards.
The IMF revealed its new managing director Christine Lagarde who took office on Tuesday will receive an annual salary of 467,940 US dollars net of income taxes and told her to “observe the highest standards of ethical conduct.”
The Irish government is expecting a report from the European Commission setting out the economic impact on Eire of a potential trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur.
Caroline Graham from London's Mail on Sunday visited the Falkland Islands for a week and chance had it she arrived when a commercial oil strike was announced by one of the several companies exploring offshore the Islands.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced a package of measures to mitigate the effects of ash spewing from Chile's Puyehue volcano that has upended air travel, tourism and farming in Patagonia.
Argentina and Chile have reached an understanding to join efforts in promoting receptive tourism in far distant overseas markets. The document was signed last week by Chile’s Deputy Secretary for Tourism Jacqueline Plass and the Argentine Tourism minister Enrique Meyer at the Argentina embassy in Santiago de Chile.