Economy

• Monday, September 21st 2009 - 11:31 UTC

  Argentina announces formal negotiations with the Club of Paris

  

  Argentina’s Economy minister Amado Boudou meets this week with its French peer Christine Lagarde for the resumption of negotiations with the Club of Paris. The meeting will take place previous to the G-20 presidential summit in Pittsburgh.

• Monday, September 21st 2009 - 11:16 UTC

  Italian tax police seize Maradona’s earrings

  

  Football legend Diego Maradona had his earrings seized by Italian authorities to help pay off his back taxes, according to media reports. The current coach of Argentina's national team was staying at a clinic in northern Italy in a bid to lose weight when finance police swooped, according to Reuters and later confirmed by the Argentine press.

• Monday, September 21st 2009 - 08:43 UTC

  Venezuela prepares for a package to “reactivate” the economy

  

  Venezuelans are expecting this week further details of President Hugo Chávez anticipated package of new economic measures intended to increase the supply of US dollars and reactivate the local economy.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:42 UTC

  Lula da Silva predicts Brazil will become world power in ten years

  

  President Lula da Silva predicts that Brazil in the near future will be in the short list of the world’s largest economies, probable in third or fourth position, and if “less lucky” at the most ranked fifth.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:37 UTC

  European leaders agree on global deal for bankers’ bonuses

  

  European Union leaders have agreed to seek a global deal for bankers' bonuses to be clawed back if profits fall. The leaders meeting in Brussels approved the clause as part of a common EU position for next week's G20 summit in Pittsburgh in the US.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:34 UTC

  US tighter supervision of credit rating agencies

  

  United States credit rating agencies will face tighter supervision under new rules adopted by the US financial watchdog.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:26 UTC

  Reflecting recession, Argentina’s foreign trade dropped by 40% during August

  

  Argentina's August trade surplus dropped 48% from the same month a year ago to 1.16 billion US dollars as exports sank, the government said on Friday. Imports fell by 37% during the month to 3.25 billion, while exports dropped by an even bigger 40% to 4.40 billion USD due to lower prices and reduced volumes, particularly by the drought-hit farming industry.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:21 UTC

  Brazil’ stock exchange reaches new high; 62% gain so far in 2009

  

  Brazilian blue-chip shares closed on Friday at a 14-month high as global investors continue to flock to the country. The benchmark Ibovespa stocks index closed 0.8% higher at 60,703 points, up from Thursday's close at 60,236 points and breaking through the psychologically important 60,500-point mark.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:15 UTC

  G 20: “Step up reforms” in IMF and WB, demand developing countries

  

  Emerging countries and particularly those from Latinamerica will propose at the coming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh that reforms of the IMF and World Bank, where they expect to have a larger representation, move much faster.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 07:32 UTC

  Argentina’s capital flight in the first half of 2009 reached 7.5 billion USD

  

  Capital flight in Argentina climbed during the second quarter, with net outflows of 4.279 billion US dollars from the non-financial private sector, according to Friday’s report from Indec.