Economy

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 20:28 UTC

  Record price for Merino wool in Uruguay: 37.76 US dollars per kilo

  

  A bail of Uruguayan fine, clean wool, 14.4 microns, was sold at a record price of 37.76 a kilo. The ultra fine wool, (uncommon for Uruguay that has a flock mostly of Corriedale), was achieved based on a strategic alliance between the Merino breeders, the country’s Agriculture Research Institute, the textile industry and 51 farmers that signed in for the project.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 19:59 UTC

  Portugal has Euro zone on the brink; bail out package considered at EU summit

  

  EU leaders are grappling with a new Euro zone threat after Portugal's parliament rejected an austerity budget and PM Jose Socrates resigned. The vote means an international bail-out, similar to those accepted by Greece and the Irish Republic last year, is now far more likely.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 19:47 UTC

  Uruguay forecasts beef exports will total 1.4 billion USD in 2011

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 18:27 UTC

  US homes market faces challenging 2011 as sales plunge to new lows

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 18:05 UTC

  US must be more pro-active if it wants access to Brazilian oil, says Petrobras

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 17:44 UTC

  Spain top three banks left out of Moody downgrading of 30 institutions

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 07:14 UTC

  Argentine economy growing strong, benefits from imports’ restrictions

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 07:08 UTC

  Federal Reserve board member warns about “extraordinary speculative activity”

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 06:32 UTC

  Bank of England remains divided 6 to 3 on interest rate hike

  

  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.

• Thursday, March 24th 2011 - 03:11 UTC

  Inflation in Uruguay feeling impact of 11.4% private domestic demand expansion

  

  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.