Economy

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 06:19 UTC

  Argentine government lacks Senate support to tap Central bank reserves

  

  Argentina’s government lacks the support needed in the Senate to approve President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s plan to tap 6.6 billion US dollars in Central Bank reserves to pay sovereign debt due this year, ruling party Senator Miguel Pichetto admitted on Sunday.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 06:02 UTC

  Wall Street helped Greece to hide mounting debts, claims The New York Times

  

  Wall Street tactics have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the Euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts, The New York Times reported Sunday.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 05:56 UTC

  Japan retains position as world’ second largest economy

  

  Japan's economy grew by 4.6% last quarter on an annualized basis, beating expectations and helping the nation keep the mantle as the world's second-largest economy. China's economy is widely expected to overtake Japan sometime this year.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:20 UTC

  Argentine Jan inflation: 1% for the government, double for consultants

  

  Consumer prices in Argentina recorded a 1% increase in January, according to the Indec national statistics bureau. In comparison to the same month last year, inflation reached 8.2%, a figure which is highly criticized by researchers and specialists.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:12 UTC

  China/Peru free trade agreement becomes effective March first

  

  The free trade agreement between Peru and China will become effective next March first, following the green light from Beijing’s all powerful Council of State, said the Peruvian Foreign Trade and Tourism ministry in an official release.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:08 UTC

  Germany falters and France expands modestly in fourth quarter

  

  Germany's recovery from recession faltered in the final quarter of 2009, according to preliminary figures released on Friday. The German economy failed to grow at all in the last three months of the year, with GDP unchanged compared with the previous quarter.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 03:09 UTC

  China tightens liquidity, tells commercial banks to hike reserve levels

  

  China has ordered banks to increase their reserves for a second time this year, as lending is curbed in a bid to stop the country's economy overheating. Analysts had expected the central bank to increase reserve levels again, but were surprised it ordered a second increase so soon after January's move.

• Friday, February 12th 2010 - 04:24 UTC

  Spanish economy contracts 0.1% in last quarter and 3.6% in 2009

  

  The Spanish economy shrank by 0.1% in the last three months of 2009, making it the last major economy still in recession. INE, the national statistics agency, also said the country's GDP had contracted by 3.1% compared with the same period a year before.

• Friday, February 12th 2010 - 04:11 UTC

  Portugal keeps to the Euro and is contrary to a bail-out policy

  

  Portugal, another of the “sick” countries of the EU (and member of PIGS: Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain), said it will not abandon the Euro.

• Friday, February 12th 2010 - 04:03 UTC

  Hopeful news for US employment: jobless benefits applications down

  

  The number of US workers filing new applications for jobless benefits tumbled last week, a government report showed Thursday, reversing a recent spike that had raised concerns about renewed labour market weakness.