Economy

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 16:50 UTC

  Rich Germans want to pay higher taxes to help with recovery

  

  A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes. The group says they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 16:39 UTC

  Wave of bankruptcies in the US still has not peaked

  

  With the bankruptcy of Partners Bank, from Florida, and American United Bank, from Georgia, there are now 101 banks in the United States that have declared insolvency so far in 2009 due to the financial crisis, local media sources informed.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 16:32 UTC

  Spain’s unemployment remains unchanged at record high

  

  Spain’s unemployment rate stood at 17.93% in the third quarter, or virtually unchanged from the previous three-month period, the National Statistics Institute, or INE, said.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 06:10 UTC

  European Parliament votes 300 million Euro support for dairy farmers

  

  The European Parliament voted to provide €300 million for a fund to help dairy farmers. Earlier in the week EU Farm Commissioner Fischer Boel had proposed a 280 million Euros support. The decision follows weeks of protests by thousands of farmers over the low price of milk, including the spraying of milk onto fields.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 05:54 UTC

  Petrobras sells 4 billion US dollars in 2020 and 2040 bonds

  

  Brazilian oil giant Petrobras on Friday launched 2.5 billion US dollars of 2020 bonds and 1.5 billion USD of 2040 bonds, in what might be the largest ever sale of corporate debt by a Brazilian company.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 05:43 UTC

  Brazilian financial sector “is crying with a full belly”

  

  Brazilian Economy minister Guido Mantega said that the financial sector is “crying with a full belly” in direct reference to complaints about inflowing capital tax which was decided this week to prevent a foreign exchange bubble between the local Real and the US dollar.

• Saturday, October 24th 2009 - 05:23 UTC

  Brazilian central bank leaves monetary expansion policy unchanged

  

  Brazil’s central bank kept its key Selic interest rate at a record low 8.75% and said its level was “consistent” with a non-inflationary recovery, signalling that no increase in borrowing costs is imminent.

• Friday, October 23rd 2009 - 12:11 UTC

  Botnia pulp mill in Uruguay transferred to world leading group UPM

  

  Uruguay’s Botnia pulp mill in Fray Bentos and the eucalyptus plantation forestry company Forestal Oriental Uruguay have been transferred to UPM which is one of the world’s leading forest industry groups.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2009 - 08:20 UTC

  US dollar slumps to its lowest in 14 months against the Euro, 1.50

  

  The US dollar slumped Wednesday, with the Euro rising above 1.50 for the first time in 14 months, as optimism about the global economic recovery boosted demand for higher yielding currencies.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2009 - 08:13 UTC

  Argentina’s trade surplus contracts 42.8% during September

  

  Argentina's September trade surplus narrowed 42.8% from the same month a year ago, with exports falling even faster than imports, the government said this week. September's 926 million US dollars surplus, which fell short of analysts' expectations, is the smallest since January.