Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian bank that is aggressively expanding its presence in Latin America, is now pushing into Uruguay with the acquisition of private bank Nuevo Banco Comercial and consumer-finance company Pronto, it said on Monday.
Mercosur and Syria are scheduled to sign an agreement to begin trade negotiations at the group’s next summit in Brazil, December 15, according to official sources in Damascus. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this year visited South America to promote trade and political links, particularly with Brazil that has a large Syrian community.
European Union states have underwritten their financial sectors with 4.5 trillion Euros of aid since the banking crisis hit. Top of the league is the UK, which pledged 850.3bn Euros of support between October 2008 and October 2010.
The US Federal Reserve has named the companies that used its emergency loan facilities during the financial crisis and revealed how much they borrowed. Details of more than 21,000 transactions aimed at stabilising financial markets have been posted on the Fed's website.
German Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said financial markets are currently testing whether the Euro zone will survive but he insisted the 16-nation monetary union won't break up. However he also warned about the risk of the emergence of an anti-Euro party.
The incoming Brazilian administration next January first will have to implement a tougher program of savings than President Lula da Silva in 2003 if the primary budget surplus is to consolidate at 3.3% of GDP in 2011, according to economists from the prestigious think-tank Getulio Vargas Foundation, FGV.
Two of the strongest emerging economies Brazil and China announced Friday measures to withdraw liquidity tighten credit and contain inflation. Brazil’s “macro-prudent” measures are geared to cut on money circulation, while China said monetary emphasis will change from “relatively loose” to “prudent”.
Uruguay’s exports jumped 23.3% during the first eleven months of 2010, anticipating a new value record for the year. Exports totalled 6.1 billion US dollars between January-November compared to 4.95 billion in the same period a year earlier and are higher than the twelve month previous record of 6.1 billion in 2008, according to Uruguay’s Exporters’ Union.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn ruled out any possibility of an impending double-dip recession even as he warned against downward risks posing the countries while they were recuperating, albeit languidly.
IMF expects to double its lending capacity to 450 billion US dollars over the next few months, giving it additional firepower to deal with the sovereign-debt crisis engulfing Europe, according to IMF officials and documents.