
Chinese equities Monday plunged 6.74% to a three-month low as investors showed concern a slowdown in bank lending would erode economic growth, reported the Xinhua news agency. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 192.94 points to finish at 2,667.75. This was the largest daily drop for the key Shanghai index since June last year.

United States faces annual trade sanctions of about 295 million US dollars for failing to scrap illegal subsidies paid to its cotton growers. However the punishment, imposed by the World Trade Organization (WTO), is far less than the 4 billion USD that Brazil, which brought the case, had wanted.

The number of bank failures in the United States reached 84 in the first four months of this year, following the collapse of three entities in California, Minnesota and Maryland, according to the latest report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FIDC

An estimated 1.600 to 1.700 vessels cross the strategic Magellan Strait annually according to the Chilean Navy that last week celebrated the 161th anniversary of its patrolling task along the country’s coastline of almost 6.500 kilometres.

Helped by the Argentine administrations of the Kirchner couple, Brazil is catching up with Argentina as Latinamerica’s main producer of wheat. This year Brazil will be planting only 200.000 hectares less than its Mercosur partner which this winter crop is down to 2.75 million hectares.

China has become the world's largest exporter surpassing Germany, the World Trade Organization has said. China displaced Germany, which held the No.1 slot since 2003, by a slim margin of 100 million US dollars after exporting goods worth 521.7 billion USD in the first half of 2009.

On November 5, 2008, the Chinese government released a policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, as it had previously done so for Europe in 2003 and for Africa in 2006.

With much of the world still mired in recession, the IMF took action to bolster its members’ reserves through an allocation of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights. The allocation, equivalent to 250 billion USD was made on August 28 and will be followed by an additional, albeit much smaller, allocation of 33 billion on September 9.

International banking authorities reported this week that Chile has the lowest inflation of any Latin American country, with an accumulated rate of -1.2% through July.

Economy Minister Amado Boudou said Argentina is a member of the International Monetary Fund and the government is trying to participate and establish a new relation but giving Argentina's own perspective to decide where the IMF must head to.