Economy

• Wednesday, November 17th 2010 - 06:42 UTC

  Mercosur/EU ready market access proposals for next round of trade talks

  

  Mercosur and European Union delegates are scheduled to meet at the end of the month or early December in Brasilia for a new round of talks leading to a wide ranging trade agreement which both sides have agreed should be ready to conclude negotiations in the first half of 2011.

• Tuesday, November 16th 2010 - 23:33 UTC

  Chile’s copper dependency has taken a turn for the worse: 55% of all exports

  

  Chile’s long-term effort to wean itself away from copper dependency appears to have taken a turn for the worse: economist Hernan Frigolett reported that the booming demand for copper has led to extremely high prices (over US$4 per pound), meaning that copper accounted for 55% of the nation’s exports in the second quarter of 2010.

• Tuesday, November 16th 2010 - 22:40 UTC

  Cuba to further open its economy and eliminate double currency system

  

  The Cuban government admitted it will have to amend several laws and decrees before implementing a plan of updating the Socialist economic model, the official Granma daily reported this week. This includes eliminating the double currency system.

• Tuesday, November 16th 2010 - 22:21 UTC

  “Global crisis is not over, getting worse” says the richest man on earth

  

  “The global crisis is not over, nothing has been solved, only patches to avoid the worst effects of a great depression”, according to Carlos Slim, the Mexican tycoon considered by Forbes the wealthiest man on earth, currently in Buenos Aires for a round of conferences.

• Tuesday, November 16th 2010 - 12:07 UTC

  “If the Euro fails, Europe fails”, warns Germany’s Merkel

  

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Euro is the glue that holds Europe together, signalling that an Irish bailout may be the price of preserving European unity.

• Tuesday, November 16th 2010 - 05:00 UTC

  Argentina and Club of Paris creditors agree to discussions with no IMF auditing

  

  The Paris Club of creditor nations accepted Argentina’s request to hold talks on restructuring its estimated 6.7 billion US dollar of debt without the oversight of the International Monetary Fund, announced on Monday President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

• Tuesday, November 16th 2010 - 04:47 UTC

  China and Argentina formalize ‘trade peace” and become ‘strategic partners’

  

  President Cristina Kirchner received China's visiting Agriculture Minister Han Changfu on Monday at Government House in Buenos Aires, formally ending a six month trade war that threatened Argentina's standing as the world's leading soybean oil exporter.

• Monday, November 15th 2010 - 21:11 UTC

  Bilateral Argentina/Brazil trade forecasted to reach record of 34 billion USD

  

  Bilateral trade among Mercosur main partners, Argentina and Brazil is expected to reach a “historic record” of almost 34 billion US dollars this year, 80% of which mostly manufactured goods, according to Argentine Industry minister Deborayh Giorgi, who also anticipated that the deficit would drop 30%.

• Monday, November 15th 2010 - 19:29 UTC

  Dilma prepared to apply drastic measures to contain Brazil’s currency surge

  

  Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff admitted her administration would take all the necessary measures possible to prevent the Brazilian Real from increasing its value vis-à-vis the US dollar, according to reports from the Sao Paulo press that interviewed the successor of President Lula da Silva in the recent G-20 summit in Korea.

• Monday, November 15th 2010 - 08:27 UTC

  Rousseff’s Brazil expected to restrain public spending and lower interest rates

  

  Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff efforts to restrain public spending will allow the central bank to cut the benchmark interest rate next year, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said.