Economy

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 16:05 UTC

  Argentina and Brazil moving towards “financial integration”

  

  Argentina and Brazil signed Wednesday an agreement to swap domestic currencies for the equivalent of a total 1.8 billion US dollars, which could be used to increase international reserves. The accord was described as an important effort towards “financial integration” in the framework of Mercosur.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 16:04 UTC

  Krugman anticipates strong Latam recovery, but behind Asia

  

  Economics Nobel Prize Paul Krugman warned Wednesday that global real recovery will take time and that he’d be surprised to see within that scenario an improvement in the labour market. However he was upbeat about Latinamerica which he anticipated will recover faster that developed countries, although behind Asia.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 15:57 UTC

  Buenos Aires and Santiago among cheapest cities in the world

  

  Oslo, Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and New York are considered the world's most expensive cities based on a standardized basket of 122 goods and services from the UBS “Prices and Earnings” survey.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 07:17 UTC

  Chile in recession: economy sinks 4.5% in the second quarter

  

  Chile’s economy shrank by 4.5% in the second quarter of this year, faring just slightly worse than the 4.4% GDP drop anticipated by economists, the Central Bank reported this week.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 05:21 UTC

  Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia recovering from the global crisis

  

  Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru are in the process of economic recovery, while Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela are in a recessive phase according to a report released Wednesday and jointly drafted by Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation and the University of Munich.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 05:03 UTC

  Warren Buffet praises US “rescue” but warns about mounting debt

  

  US billionaire Warren Buffett said that the US economy appears to be recovering, though the “enormous dosages of monetary medicine” used to fix it might pose a threat as “ominous” as last year's financial crisis itself.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 04:51 UTC

  “Deep scars” from recession will an effect for years to come, warns IMF

  

  The world has begun to recover from recession but the process will not be simple, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. The recession has “left deep scars which will affect both supply and demand for many years to come” according to IMF chief economist, Olivier Blanchard.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 04:37 UTC

  Six million working age adults Britons claiming benefits

  

  The number of British working-age adults claiming benefits is set to hit six million this month, a UK think-tank has predicted. The centre-right Policy Exchange forecast the rise using official Government figures on benefit claimants and the latest unemployment figures.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2009 - 12:24 UTC

  Some positive signs for Argentine industrial activity in spite of poor data

  

  Argentine industrial activity during July plunged for the tenth month running going down 9.5% compared to a year ago, and accumulates so far this year a contraction of 8.7%, according to a private financial consultant group based in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2009 - 12:10 UTC

  Catholic Church insists 40% of Argentines live in poverty

  

  The Argentine Catholic Church insisted on Tuesday that 40% of the population is poor or living below the poverty line and the gap between rich and poor is “scandalous”. The statement comes when Argentine bishops are meeting in Buenos Aires,