Economy

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 23:26 UTC

  Argentina promotes meat production with subsidized loans

  

  Argentina plans to extend the equivalent of 750 million US dollars in subsidized loans to meat producers to spur increased production of beef, chicken and pork.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 22:45 UTC

  Peru/Mexico sign trade agreement, fist step for a regional expansion towards Asia

  

  Peru and Mexico signed this week a trade agreement with the aim of jointly reaching out to Asia, an undertaking that they want Chile and Colombia to join

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 22:41 UTC

  Chinese think-tank forecasts BRIC countries to overtake the US economy by 2015

  

  BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are expected to contribute one-third of the world's GDP increase in 2015, by which time their total economy will surpass United States, according to a leading Chinese think tank.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 22:10 UTC

  Shell moves heavily into bio-fuels from sugar cane bagasse in Brazil

  

  Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s biggest distributor of bio-fuels, is shifting research to waste from sugar-cane farming after ending an algae project in Hawaii. Shell, Iogen Corp. and Codexis have been researching enzymes to produce cellulose ethanol from wheat stalks and sugar-cane bagasse, a sugar industry waste product.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 20:08 UTC

  Argentina imports’ hurdles create ‘uncertainty’ to EU/Mercosur trade negotiations

  

  Argentina’s hurdles to imports don’t help European Union /Mercosur trade negotiations and generate “uncertainty” warned the EU head of delegation in Argentina Alfonso Diez Torres. He also criticized the “one to one” Argentine policy that forces the local assembly plants to match every import-dollar with export dollars.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 20:06 UTC

  US military Unified Command Plan reflect the growing importance of the Arctic

  

  Changes made to the US military’s Unified Command Plan shift geographic boundaries and stress the growing importance of the Arctic, US Pentagon officials said in an American Forces press service

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 17:13 UTC

  EU tells Portugal more reforms are needed to secure the 80 billion Euro bail-out

  

  Euro zone finance ministers told Portugal that it would have to implement new economic reforms that went beyond those proposed by its outgoing government if it hoped to secure aid from the EU and IMF.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 17:09 UTC

  Spain an “insurmountable dam protecting the Euro zone” says Deputy PM

  

  Spain has gone from being “another domino” to “an insurmountable dam that it protecting the Euro zone” due to its tough economic reforms, the government said Friday.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 07:32 UTC

  Brazilian inflation remains untameable; Real hits a new high

  

  Brazilian inflation accelerated more than economists expected in March from a year earlier, led by food and transportation costs, taking the annual rate near the upper limit of the government’s target range. On Thursday the Brazilian currency Real also further strengthened to a record 1.58 to the US dollar in spite of the latest measures.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 07:27 UTC

  Brazil doubles tax on consumer credit to fight inflation

  

  Brazil doubled a tax on consumer credit as the administration of President Dilma Rousseff’s shifts its focus to fighting inflation. Beginning Friday consumer loans, excluding mortgages, will be subject to a 3% annual tax, up from a previous rate of 1.5%, according to a Finance Ministry statement.