
Argentina’s cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández reported there were signs of a slow recovery in the economy, during his monthly address to the Congress. The usual soothsayers were wrong in their predictions, he said, claiming that GDP fell less abruptly in Argentina than in Peru, Chile or even Brazil.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that the dollar's role as a reserve currency is intact, but the United States cannot take it for granted and needs to tackle its huge fiscal deficit.
The Argentine government recently announced a plan to offer a debt swap to investors still holding US$20 billion (plus interest) in unpaid bonds from the country’s 2001 debt default.

The United Kingdom is the developed nation most at risk of losing its AAA sovereign credit rating because of the budget deficit and virtually no margin left in the event of another downturn, Fitch warned Tuesday.

Lloyds Banking Group is to axe thousands of jobs next year in a fresh wave of cuts under plans to reduce costs, sources have said. Up to 5,000 positions are expected to be cut in the UK in 2010, on top of thousands already slashed this year.

United Kingdom affluent shoppers hit by the recession are fuelling a shoplifting crime-wave, according to research. Middle-class people reluctant to give up luxuries they can no longer afford are behind thefts of expensive foods, alcohol and cosmetics, the Centre for Retail Research data claimed.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim will receive Monday in Rio do Janeiro his Argentine counterpart Jorge Taiana to discuss several issues of the “bilateral agenda” including, according to Argentine diplomatic sources the ongoing “trade differences”.

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging market economies pledged to maintain economic stimulus measures until recovery from the global crisis is assured and asked the IMF to assess whether countries were on track for delivering strong, sustainable, and balanced growth to avoid future problems.

Brazil's Petrobras said on Friday it is still studying drilling results from lot 58 in Peru's Amazon and has yet to estimate natural gas deposits there, a day after Peruvian President Alan Garcia said the company struck a large find.

Mining and construction industries have led Chile’s economic recovery, according to a recently released economic report.