
Uruguay’s growth estimate for this year remains at 5% but is forecasted at 4.2% for 2012 with warnings on the economy’s over-heating, significant inflow of capital and inflation, according to the IMF World Economic Outlook released this week. In 2010 the Uruguayan economy expanded 8.5%.

The US trade deficit shrank in February as imports fell more than exports, according to a government report that suggested a slowdown in global demand. The monthly trade gap totalled 45.8 billion US dollars, down from an upwardly revised estimate of 47 billion in January.

China and Brazil on Tuesday clinched a host of government agreements and economic deals in Beijing to enhance their strategic partnership as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff paid her first state visit to China.

By David Michaels (*) “Hoodwink” is John Perkins latest book and a blueprint for a new form of global economics, far from predatory capitalism that must put an end to the old formula of “the few benefiting at the expense of the many”.

The outlook for government debts and deficits in 2011 is a mixed bag, with most advanced economies reining in fiscal deficits, but not fast enough to keep their debt from rising. Fiscal balances are improving in most emerging economies, and some could do more as they experience a windfall from high commodity prices and strong capital flows.

Chile has some of the worst social indicators of the 34 countries that make up the Paris based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the latest releases from the group.

The Chilean fruit industry is being threatened by the rapid decline of the country’s bee population, a product by the country’s ongoing drought.
Water shortages across central Chile are withering the flower buds, depriving bees of their sustenance, the nectar.

There is an urgent need for the United States to tackle the deficit in the government's finances since the size of the exposure risks creating instability in the financial markets, according to the International Monetary Fund. However the IMF says the global economic recovery is gaining strength.

Inflation risks are building in all Latin American countries except Mexico, where price gains are low and economic expansion should outpace Brazil this year, according to the the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook.

A new system of fishery control with continent-wide, common rules and penalties is now fully operational, the European Commission said on Tuesday.