
Uruguayan beef exports should reach 1.4 billion US dollars in 2011 according to an announcement this week from the country’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Tabare Aguerre.

United States sales of new homes fell 16.9% last month compared with January and by a whopping 28% from the level of February 2010, the U.S. Commerce Department said. The February 2011 figure represents an annualized rate of 250,000 new home sales. Analysts had expected an annualized rate of 290,000.

The United States must pay more importance to its strategic alliance with Brazil if it really wants to benefit from Petrobras’ recently discovered deep-water oil and natural gas reserves in the Atlantic Ocean, the company’s CEO, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, said.

Moody's risk ratings agency on Thursday downgraded the ratings of 30 Spanish banks, a direct consequence of its decision earlier this month to downgrade indebted Spain's sovereign rating.

Argentina's industrial output rose sharply and the trade surplus beat market expectations during the month of February signalling that the economy is still growing strong.

United States Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard W. Fisher said he sees “extraordinary speculative activity” in the US after the central bank pumped record amounts of stimulus into the economy.

Six members of the Bank of England’s nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee, including Governor Mervyn King, continued to oppose the minority campaign for an immediate rise in benchmark UK interest rates at the MPC’s meeting two weeks ago, minutes revealed Wednesday.

Private domestic demand was a crucial element in the 2010 performance of the Uruguayan economy that expanded 8.5%, for the eighth year running, according to the latest report from the Central bank. But inflation is also running well above target.

Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for Argentina’s economic growth in 2011 after the economy expanded last year at the fastest pace since 2005. Alberto Ramos Goldman Sachs economist raised the GDP expansion estimate to 6.8% from a previous 5.6%, according to an e-mail statement.

World lemon and orange juice production is set to grow while the crop of tangerines and grapefruits are forecasted to drop according to a citrus trade report from the US Department of Agriculture.