Economy

• Friday, October 22nd 2010 - 03:07 UTC

  Geithner promises Brazil it won’t allow the US dollar to weaken

  

  US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega that the Obama administration won’t allow the US dollar to weaken, Mantega said.

• Friday, October 22nd 2010 - 03:03 UTC

  Business and government officials meet in China to promote Latam/Asia trade

  

  A thousand government officials and business executives from Latin America and the Caribbean, China, Japan and Korea participated Thursday in the opening session of the China-Latin American Caribbean Business Forum with high-ranking Chinese authorities and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) executives.

• Friday, October 22nd 2010 - 02:58 UTC

  Morales says Bolivia will produce 30% of world’s lithium carbonate demand

  

  President Evo Morales said on Thursday that Bolivia does not need foreign investors to develop an ambitious lithium carbonate project by 2014.

• Friday, October 22nd 2010 - 02:51 UTC

  Brazil predicted to displace Italy as seventh world economy in 2011

  

  The Economist Intelligence Unit is predicting that in 2011 Brazil would move ahead of Italy into seventh place in the ranking of the largest world economies with a GDP of 2 trillion US dollars.

• Friday, October 22nd 2010 - 02:34 UTC

  Brazil keeps benchmark interest rate at 10.75% in spite of inflation peak

  

  Brazil’s central bank kept its benchmark overnight rate unchanged Wednesday as policy makers gauge whether a peak in inflation is temporary. The policy committee, led by bank President Henrique Meirelles in a unanimous decision, left the rate at 10.75% for a second straight meeting.

• Thursday, October 21st 2010 - 11:14 UTC

  Qatar sovereign wealth fund buys 5% of Banco Santander Brazil

  

  Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, said this week that it will sell 5% of its Brazilian unit to Qatar Holding LLC for 1.95 billion Euros (Approx. 2.7 billion US dollars).

• Thursday, October 21st 2010 - 11:06 UTC

  Chilean companies become aware of business impact on freshwater resources

  

  Some companies in Chile have recently become involved in a movement to measure the impact of businesses on freshwater resources.

• Thursday, October 21st 2010 - 07:30 UTC

  Lula da Silva promises to defend currency from further appreciation

  

  Brazil’s Lula da Silva said that the G-20 group must address the issue of the “currencies war” in direct reference to the forced depreciation by some rich countries of their currencies which negatively affects the competitiveness of its trade partners, particularly in the developing world.

• Thursday, October 21st 2010 - 07:19 UTC

  With frozen income BBC has to fund World Service and Welsh language TV

  

  The TV licence fee, which funds Britain’s BBC, is to be frozen for six years at £145.50, the Chancellor has confirmed. The BBC will also take over the cost of the Foreign Office-funded World Service, BBC Monitoring and some of the costs of Welsh language TV channel S4C.

• Thursday, October 21st 2010 - 07:11 UTC

  UK unveils biggest spending cuts in decades; half a million public jobs to go

  

  Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled the biggest UK spending cuts for decades, with welfare, councils and police budgets all hit. The pension age will rise sooner than expected, some incapacity benefits will be time limited and other money clawed back through changes to tax credits and housing benefit.