Economy

• Saturday, August 15th 2009 - 12:33 UTC

  US libertarian think-tank supports legalizing undocumented workers

  

  A new study from the libertarian CATO Institute concludes that legalizing the more than eight million undocumented workers in the United States would have significant economic benefits for the country, while simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the US economically.

• Saturday, August 15th 2009 - 11:07 UTC

  Mexico/Uruguay sign strategic association accord and advance trade

  

  Mexico president Felipe Calderón and Uruguay’s Tabare Vazquez signed on Friday in Montevideo a Strategic Association accord to strengthen political dialogue and bilateral trade relations in the framework of the 2004 free trade agreement.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 14:05 UTC

  IMF allocation for Mercosur countries exceeds 7 billion USD

  

  The IMF allocation of Special Drawing Rights, SDR, equivalent to 250 billion USD to provide liquidity to the global economic system will supplement Mercosur country members with approximately 7 billion US dollars.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 14:00 UTC

  At the end of August IMF injects 250 billion USD to member countries

  

  The International Monetary Fund announced Thursday it would begin to inject 250 billion US dollars into member nations' treasuries to cushion the blows of the global economic crisis. The action is part of a 1.1 trillion US dollar plan agreed by Group of 20 leaders in early April to tackle the global financial and economic crisis.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 05:35 UTC

  Paraguay’s poverty index forecasted to reach 40% because of recession

  

  After having declined sustainedly during the last few years, Paraguay’s poverty index is forecasted to soar to 40% of the population in 2009 because of the economic recession, said on Thursday Economy minister Dionisio Borda.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 05:27 UTC

  Nationalized Aerolíneas Argentinas remains deep in the red

  

  Argentina’s re-nationalized flag air carrier Aerolíneas Argentina lost in July 48 million US dollars which is “a little bit more” than the same month a year ago when the company belonged to the Spanish tourism group Marsans, according to the company’s current CEO Mariano Recalde.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 05:03 UTC

  Agreement in principle to buy 55% of GM Opel and Vauxhall

  

  Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank have reached agreement in principle with General Motors management over a contract to buy 55% of GM's European unit Opel, Magna's co-CEO Siegfried Wolf told reporters.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 02:53 UTC

  France and Germany’s economies performances surprise Britain

  

  Lord Mandelson has defended the British Government's handling of the downturn after figures showed that France and Germany have already pulled out of recession. The French and German economies both grew by 0.3% between April and June - surprising analysts who had expected them to shrink.

• Thursday, August 13th 2009 - 14:26 UTC

  Argentina’s July official inflation averaged half private consultants’ estimates

  

  Argentina on Wednesday released its official estimate for July inflation, but the data merely confirmed widespread suspicions that the national statistics agency continues to manipulate numbers.

• Thursday, August 13th 2009 - 08:34 UTC

  Fed says US economy “levelling off” although activity likely to remain weak

  

  The Federal Reserve left US interest rates un changed between 0% and 0.25% describing the current situation as “levelling off” although economic activity is “likely to remain weak for a time”.