
At a time of global economic hardship, corruption fighters from around the world convened this week in Paris to work against further plundering of developing countries, by supporting efforts against asset theft and safe havens for ill-gotten gains.

China’s exports jumped 48.5% in May from a year earlier, the biggest gain in more than six years. However the impact of the European crisis is still to be seen following on this week’s IMF warning that global economic risks have risen significantly.

The global economic recovery continues to advance, but Europe’s debt crisis has created new hurdles on the road to sustainable medium term growth, cautions the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects 2010, released Thursday online.

Venezuela central bank set an implicit exchange rate of about 5.3 Bolivar per US dollar in a new currency market that made its debut Wednesday and aims to rein in surging inflation and have greater control over the alternative foreign exchange market.

Brazil's crop will reach 145.8 million tons in 2010, up 8.8% from 2009, according to a May projection released on Tuesday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The projection is 0.5% lower than April’s, released in May.

Risks to the global economic outlook have “risen significantly” and policy makers have limited room to provide support to growth warned International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Naoyuki Shinohara during a conference Wednesday in Singapore.

The new foreign currency controls that begun to be applied this week in Argentina had a marginal incidence in formal operations Tuesday, but in the parallel informal market the US dollar, under strong demand shot past the 4 Pesos milestone.

China's central bank reiterated on Tuesday it would continue to implement the relatively easy monetary policy according to changing situations in a bid to facilitate the ongoing development transformation model, as well as reinforce the country's sound and relatively fast economic growth.

Brazil’s economy grew at its fastest annual rate since 1995 in the first quarter anticipating expectations that the central bank will raise interest rates 0.75 percentage point Wednesday to prevent overheating.

LAN Chile Airlines and subsidiaries, (NYSE: LFL / IPSA: LAN), one of the leading airlines in Latin America, reported on Monday its preliminary monthly traffic statistics and punctuality indicators for May 2010.