Economy

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:12 UTC

  Mercosur summit begins Tuesday among controversy over its effectiveness

  

  The Mercosur summit will be an opportunity to solve asymmetry problems and social inequalities in the region, said Paraguay’ Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Lara Castro. The South American customs union is meeting this week in Asuncion for the first of two annual summits when the rotating chair will be passed on to Uruguay.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:07 UTC

  French banks agree to roll over holdings of Greek debt for 30 years

  

  French banks have agreed to roll over holdings of Greek debt for 30 years, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday, as the Greek government tries to persuade backbench rebels to back a crucial austerity plan to avert bankruptcy.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 06:01 UTC

  Avoid raw sprouts and seeds to prevent outbreak of E. coli, say Dutch and UK health officials

  

  Dutch and British health officials advised people to avoid raw sprouts and seeds after scientists linked an outbreak of E. coli in France to a highly toxic one in Germany that has killed 47 people.

• Tuesday, June 28th 2011 - 04:28 UTC

  Almost 40 million Brazilians climbed to middle class in the last eight years

  

  An estimated 39.5 million Brazilians climbed to the middle class between 2003 and May 2011 according to a report from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, FGV, released Monday and which underlined inclusion and inequality reduction as the main forces.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 18:48 UTC

  Federal Reserve will remain biggest buyer of US Treasury bills

  

  The Federal Reserve will remain the biggest buyer of Treasuries, even after the second round of quantitative easing ends this week, as the central bank uses its 2.86 trillion US dollars balance sheet to keep interest rates low.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 16:48 UTC

  US consumer spending flat in May reflecting a fall in auto sales

  

  Consumer spending in the United States was unchanged in May for the first time in almost a year, likely reflecting a plunge in auto sales, according to a US government report, that also showed a build-up in underlying inflation pressures.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 15:34 UTC

  FAO elected-chief anticipates high and volatile food prices for several years

  

  The newly elected chief of the United Nations food agency, FAO, anticipated on Monday high and volatile food prices will persist for several years. Brazil's Jose Graziano da Silva was elected on Sunday to replace Senegal's Jacques Diouf.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 15:21 UTC

  Reports of puma attacks on sheep multiplying in Chile

  

  Desperate and decimating. That’s how biologist Agustín Iriarte describes the attitude of livestock farmers and their dwindling number of livestock, as predators take their toll. Chile’s pumas are attacking and killing sheep flocks more than ever.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 15:09 UTC

  Chinese local governments have piled a debt equivalent to 1.4 trillion USD

  

  Fresh evidence shows that Chinese local governments commit the same sins as their counterparts in South America and even Spain, where most provinces, states and regional autonomies traditionally pile billions of dollars in debt that following some political arrangement are finally bailed out by the central government.

• Monday, June 27th 2011 - 15:00 UTC

  Soros: EU on verge of economic collapse; some countries will have to exit the Euro

  

  US/UK Hungarian born billionaire investor George Soros says a country will eventually exit the Euro zone and urged policymakers on Sunday to come up with a “plan B” that could rescue the European Union from looming economic collapse.