Economy

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 21:25 UTC

  US trade deficit soars to 46.3 billion in spite of record exports

  

  Stock markets have fallen after figures showed the US trade deficit had widened much more than expected in January. The US Commerce Department said the deficit had widened to 46.3 billion US dollars from 40.3 billion USD in December.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 21:20 UTC

  Rare trade deficit in China; conflicting opinions as to the reasons

  

  Chinese trade figures released Thursday show a surprising deficit for February, as export growth slowed and import numbers remained strong. Chinese statistics released Thursday show that the country registered a trade deficit in February of 7.3 billion US dollars.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 20:16 UTC

  Brazilian markets expect further tightening to bring inflation to target

  

  Brazil's central bank said Thursday it remained cautious about the outlook for prices due to uncertainties in the global economy, and hinted that more than just interest rates may be needed to bring inflation back into line with targets.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 17:56 UTC

  Moody’s downgrades Spain’s sovereign debt rating

  

  Moody's Investors Service on Thursday slashed Spain's sovereign debt rating by a notch to Aa2 with a negative outlook, saying it was uncertain about the country's ability to improve its finances.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 17:43 UTC

  Qatar set to have this year the highest per capita income in the world

  

  Qatar is set to become the country with the world’s highest per capita income following on a breathless 16% growth in 2010 and a forecasted 20% this year according to the latest estimates from the IMF.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 06:47 UTC

  Inflation and production diversification, challenges for emerging economies

  

  Inflation and production diversification must be the top priorities of emerging economies such as Argentina warned Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz during an IMF sponsored forum on “Macro and growth policies at the wake of the crisis” which took place in Washington and convened top line economists and decision makers.

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 22:52 UTC

  “Argentina has not learnt the 2001 lesson, nor have many investors the 2008 crisis”

  

  “There is no evidence that Argentina has learnt the lesson from the 2001 crisis”, said Carmen Reinhart one of the most influential US economists and an expert in Latin America, who has worked for the IMF, in Wall Street and teaches at the University of Maryland.

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 21:27 UTC

  US after transparent trade across Asia-Pacific region; plans to double exports in five years

  

  The United States will step up efforts for free, open and transparent trade across the Asia Pacific region as it seeks to double US exports in five years, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 21:21 UTC

  UK farmers come out strongly against Mercosur “cheap meat imports”

  

  Farmers in the UK have warned the EU against a trade deal with Mercosur which could see Brazil and Argentina given access to the European meat market, potentially flooding the market with cheap imports and undermining domestic producers.

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 21:07 UTC

  China plans to build 10 million low cost homes in 2011

  

  China plans to build 10 million low-cost homes this year at a cost of 200 billion US dollars, a government minister has said. The move comes as soaring home prices spur complaints about affordability.