Economy

• Saturday, September 25th 2010 - 05:17 UTC

  Mercosur meets in Brazil ahead of trade negotiation round with the EU

  

  Next Wednesday Mercosur country members are scheduled to meet in Brazil to coordinate for the coming round of Mercosur/European Union trade negotiations that will be taking place in Brussels, October 11 to 15.

• Saturday, September 25th 2010 - 05:06 UTC

  Uruguay raises basic rate; gives priority to inflation target

  

  Uruguay’s central bank raised on Friday its overnight lending rate to 6.5% from 6.25% as inflation expectations are above the target range of 4% to 6%. The decision took the market by surprise since exporters have been asking for a stronger US dollar, but the Economy ministry said “it did not visualize a loss of competitiveness”.

• Saturday, September 25th 2010 - 05:02 UTC

  FAO emergency meeting to address soaring prices of cereals

  

  Experts from more than 75 FAO Member States agreed Friday that while there were no grounds for complacency, there was no indication of an impending world food crisis. They proposed exploring new measures to check food price volatility and manage associated risks.

• Saturday, September 25th 2010 - 03:01 UTC

  Brazil’s oil prospects break all records of share placing: 70 billion US dollars

  

  Brazil's government managed oil and gas company raised 70 billion US in the world's biggest-ever share offering Thursday. The success of Petrobras issue showed the extent of investor interest in Brazil's massive offshore oil reserves, one of the world's fastest-growing regions for energy production.

• Friday, September 24th 2010 - 02:49 UTC

  In two years Argentina’s cattle herd lost 15% and is down to 49 million

  

  Argentines have lost their title as the world’s biggest beef eaters after the worst drought in 70 years and government export limits to contain domestic prices led ranchers to reduce the number of cattle on the Pampas. Exports have also fallen drastically.

• Friday, September 24th 2010 - 01:18 UTC

  Airlines recovery surprises and boosts profits but 2011 is forecasted as ‘austere’

  

  The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revised its 2010 industry outlook and is now projecting a profit of 8.9 billion US dollars (up from the 2.5 billion forecast in June), with Asia and Latinamerica leading. However, in its first look into 2011, IATA estimates that profitability will drop to 5.3 billion.

• Thursday, September 23rd 2010 - 04:04 UTC

  Argentine main business sectors reject unions’ supervised profit-sharing bill

  

  Argentina leading business associations representing agriculture, industry, banking and construction sectors rejected point blank the bill out lined by a Kirchnerite lawmaker for the distribution of company profits among workers and employees.

• Thursday, September 23rd 2010 - 02:01 UTC

  Head of the US 700 billion USD bail-out program steps down

  

  The US Treasury Department official in charge of overseeing the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) is stepping down. Herb Allison said that he was resigning now that the US bail-out programme was winding down.

• Thursday, September 23rd 2010 - 00:25 UTC

  Singapore based group takes over New Zealand dairy farms in Uruguay

  

  Singapore-based Olam International has successfully gained control of NZX-listed NZ Farming Systems Uruguay. As part of the takeover bid Olam offered 70c a share for all shares, valuing NZ Farming Systems at 171 million NZ dollars, conditional on getting more than half the shares.

• Thursday, September 23rd 2010 - 00:16 UTC

  EU confident of a trade deal with Mercosur; talks next month in Brussels

  

  In anticipation of a new round of Mercosur/European Union trade talks to take place in Brussels, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht confirmed he remained hopeful a deal could be struck in the coming twelve months, following the recent experience with South Korea.