Economy

• Friday, February 20th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  US Justice blocks consolidation of meat industry

  

  Brazil's JBS, the world's largest beef producer and owner of JBS-Swift, said on Friday it had abandoned its attempt to takeover of US meat company National Beef Packing Company LLC.

• Thursday, February 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Five EU members in breach of 3% GDP deficit rule

  

  The European Commission has taken disciplinary steps to tackle swelling budget deficits in six EU countries.

• Thursday, February 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Telecoms innovation, dynamo for global recovery says UN

  

  The global financial crisis could provide entrepreneurial opportunities for budding information and communication technology (ICT) businesses, which in turn can power economic recovery, according to a new United Nations report.

• Thursday, February 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Stanford failure panic spreads to Peru and Venezuela

  

  Peru and Venezuela have become the latest countries to intervene in local banks controlled by the Stanford group as it faces fraud accusations. Peru's securities regulator suspended local operations of the Stanford Financial Group for 30 days.

• Thursday, February 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Buenos Aires stock market downgraded to “frontier index”

  

  MSCI Barra a leading stock market index provider has decided to remove Argentina from its emerging market index and place it in its frontier markets index. The frontier markets index contains stocks from countries considered not sufficiently developed to be eligible for MSCI Barra's emerging markets index.

• Wednesday, February 18th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  IMF insists main immediate goal is to clean-up banks

  

  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that global recovery efforts are being undermined by the presence of “toxic” assets on banks' balance sheets. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an interview to French radio France-Inter that this undercuts stimulus efforts by various governments.

• Wednesday, February 18th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  UK annual inflation falls to 3% in Jan; deflation fears

  

  A smaller-than-expected drop in inflation has failed to ease fears that the UK could soon be in the grip of deflation. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) data revealed a fall in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to 3% in January from 3.1% in December, which was far lower than experts had predicted.

• Wednesday, February 18th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Beijing wants closer political and trade links with Latam

  

  Chinese Vice-president Xi Jinping currently in Venezuela, the fourth leg of a regional tour hailed the vigorous growth in relations between China and Latin America in recent years and described the pace of cooperation as “unprecedented”, according to reports from Beijing news agencies.

• Wednesday, February 18th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Knighted billionaire faces “Ponzi-wicket” fraud charges

  

  Billionaire financier and cricket entrepreneur Sir Allen Stanford has been charged by US regulators over an alleged multi-billion dollar fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint in a Dallas Court against Sir Allen and three of his companies for “orchestrating a fraudulent, multi-billion dollar investment scheme”.

• Tuesday, February 17th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Doubts about Uruguay's second pulp mill project

  Spanish pulp maker Ence has narrowed a search for a partner in its 1.6 billion US dollars paper mill in Uruguay to four foreign players as it struggles with huge debt, tight credit and an ailing European paper industry, reports Reuter's office in Madrid.