China's central bank has reiterated its call for a new reserve currency to replace the US dollar. The report from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said a super-sovereign currency should take its place.
The Spanish cabinet approved Friday a 9 billion Euro (12.7 billion US dollars) fund to help revive the financial sector by buying stakes in banks hit by the global crisis and get them lending again.
Leaders from the grouping which supports Uruguayan presidential hopeful Danilo Astori cautioned in Buenos Aires that if Senator Jose Mujica is nominated candidate next Sunday, the ruling coalition’s re-election chances could be impaired.
Safe deposit boxes in Uruguay are overflowing with US dollars from fearful Argentines concerned about the situation in their country and the results of Sunday’s mid term elections, according to banking sources in Montevideo.
Argentine industrial production fell 1.7% in May from a year earlier and was down 0.2% on the month, according to the latest release from the country’s Statistics Institute. This is the fifth month running that industrial production has been contracting.
The United States Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and said that the recession in the US is “slowing” but “economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time”.
Uruguayan residents’ savings in overseas banks totalled 7.1 billion US dollars in the last quarter of 2008, which represents a slight drop from September 2008 but 14% over December 2006 (6.25 billion USD) according to the latest report from the Bank of International Settlements, BIS.
Uruguay’s imports again plummeted in May for the fifth month running, with the highest inter-annual negative rate, 41%, according to the latest data from the Central Bank released this week.
The World Bank estimates the Uruguayan economy will expand 0.8% this year and begin a gradual recovery in 2010 with growth reaching 2.3%. In spite of the poor 2009 estimate, it will be one of the highest of the region together with Peru, Panama, Bolivia, Belize and Guyana.
Brazil’s currency, Real fell the most in four months battered by the World Bank’s prediction of a deeper recession in 2009 pushed by investors fleeing higher-yielding, emerging-market assets.