Economy

• Wednesday, July 13th 2011 - 16:16 UTC

  Battle for majority control of Brazil’s retail industry falls through

  

  Brazilian retail tycoon Abilio Diniz has suspended plans to merge his supermarket chain Grupo Pao de Acucar with the local arm of France's Carrefour. The move comes after the Brazilian state development bank BNDES and a private fund backed out of supporting the deal.

• Wednesday, July 13th 2011 - 10:24 UTC

  Brazil confident it can control inflation in second half and moderate capital inflow

  

  The Brazilian central bank is comfortable with its inflation forecast for 2011 despite a stronger-than-expected June reading, which spurred speculation that even higher interest rates will be necessary to keep prices in check.

• Wednesday, July 13th 2011 - 10:16 UTC

  US loosing Colombian market share to Mercosur claim farmers

  

  United States industry and agriculture lobbies are again advocating forcefully before Congress on the pending free trade agreement with Colombia claiming the delay is costing market share to a more aggressive Mercosur.

• Wednesday, July 13th 2011 - 03:07 UTC

  Argentine June “Congress inflation index” jumped 1.5%

  

  Argentine opposition lawmakers announced on Tuesday that the so called “Congress inflation index” measured by eight consulting agencies increased 1.5% in June. The index is a repeat of May’s 1.5%, and 23.5% in the last twelve months.

• Wednesday, July 13th 2011 - 01:38 UTC

  Argentina’s industrial activity increased 9.6% in May says Industrial Union

  

  Argentina’s industrial activity increased 9.6% in May, in comparison to the volume registered in the same month of 2010, the Argentine Industrial Union reported on Tuesday. With this result, the industrial activity accumulated a 9.2% increase in the first five months of 2011.

• Wednesday, July 13th 2011 - 00:44 UTC

  Sao Paulo and Rio do Janeiro among the 12 most expensive cities in the world

  

  Brazil’s two biggest cities are getting more and more costly and are more expensive places to live in than New York, according to the annual cost of living study released Tuesday by business consulting firm Mercer.

• Tuesday, July 12th 2011 - 23:32 UTC

  China secures one of IMF four Deputy Managing Director posts

  

  China has secured its first top-level post at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in recognition of its growing power in the global economy. New IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde appointed Zhu Min to a newly created deputy managing director post.

• Tuesday, July 12th 2011 - 21:01 UTC

  Brazil’s 2016 Olympics deadline running faster that the high-speed train project

  

  Brazil's ambitious high-speed train project was postponed once again due to a lack of bidders but Brazilian officials anticipated they would hold two separate bids for the project to link Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo on time for the 2016 Olympic Games.

• Tuesday, July 12th 2011 - 07:01 UTC

  EU digs in to defend Euro: lower costs of aid packages and beefs up stability fund

  

  European Union finance ministers pledged to beef up a rescue package for troubled economies such as Greece as they went to battle to contain debt crisis contagion threatening to engulf Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy and Socialist Spain.

• Tuesday, July 12th 2011 - 02:38 UTC

  Obama pushes congressional leaders for deficit reduction deal: “if not now, when?”

  

  President Barack Obama pushed congressional leaders for the largest possible deficit-reduction deal that would involve changes to popular entitlement programs, asking: “If not now, when?”