Economy

• Saturday, July 16th 2011 - 07:08 UTC

  Chilean central bank leaves benchmark rate unchanged at 5.25%

  

  The Chilean central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged this week for the first time since January as signs of slower growth abroad and a moderation in domestic output and demand provided space to delay additional increases.

• Saturday, July 16th 2011 - 06:58 UTC

  Eight out of 90 banks in Europe fail stress-test, five of them from Spain

  

  Eight banks have failed Europe's bank stress test designed to assess whether they can weather another economic crisis while 16 banks barely passed, bank regulators said on Friday.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 16:33 UTC

  US June consumer prices fell 0.2%, but growing fears of core inflation

  

  The cost of living in the United States fell in June, as a sharp drop in energy cost offset other price rises. Consumer prices fell 0.2%, their first monthly fall in a year; excluding energy and food, prices rose slightly. The annual inflation rate was 3.6%.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 16:31 UTC

  Plan to support Brazilian industry from foreign protectionism to be announced August 2

  

  Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff announced Thursday night the launching of a new plan aimed to boost and protect Brazilian industry against international competition and at the same called for a technological development leap forward.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:25 UTC

  Argentina denies restrictions in trade with Brazil; admits ‘logical differences’

  

  Argentina’s trade relation with Brazil does not have restrictions and “it’s understandable that some differences surface” when bilateral trade will be reaching over 40 billion dollars this year, said Argentine Industry Ministry sources in Buenos Aires.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:21 UTC

  Argentines would like to buy at “official” inflation and be paid in real inflation

  

  According to Argentina’s statistics office Indec consumer inflation was 0.7% pushed mostly by the cost of clothing. However private economic consulting offices estimate the index was double the official announcement.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:13 UTC

  Argentine central bank purchases 500m dollars to stop appreciation of the Peso

  

  The Argentine Central bank has purchased so far this week 500 million US dollars to ensure that the country’s exporters retain a favourable exchange rate and importers are not that tempted to buy foreign goods.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:09 UTC

  “Grain prices are more linked to the US dollar than to food demand”

  

  “Saving in US dollars or in soybeans is the same” cautioned Argentine economist Carlos Melconian, who argued that “grain and oilseed prices are more linked to the value of the dollar than to demand for food produce”.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:04 UTC

  China forecasted to become Latin America’s second trade partner by 2015

  

  China will become Latin America's second largest trade partner as early as in 2015, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said this week.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  Italian parliament does its homework and approves sweeping austerity budget

  

  Italy's upper house of parliament has agreed to a sweeping austerity budget in a move intended to allay concerns over a possible bailout. Meanwhile, Greece must come to terms with another ratings downgrade.