British taxpayers will take a 57.9% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland after investors snubbed its £15 billion share offer, the bank said on Friday. RBS existing shareholders refused to buy the new stock because the bank's shares were trading below the 65.5p offer price announced in October.
Spain has launched an 11 billion Euro plan aimed at boosting the economy and creating 300,000 jobs. The plan, which represents 1.1% of Spain's GDP is part of the European Union's 200 billion Euro stimulus announced on Wednesday.
The slowdown of China's economy is gathering force as the global financial crisis spreads, anticipating rising unemployment and social unrest, admitted the country's top planner. The non written understanding of Chinese communist party supremacy in exchange for sustained growth has begun to sputter.
The Paris Club of creditor nations disclosed this week for the first time ever how much it is owed world wide, --330 billion US dollars--, with Cuba, Argentina and Peru top of the list in Latinamerica.
Brazil, the world's largest exporter of poultry and second-biggest supplier of soybeans, is seeking investments in ports and roads from China, its largest market for agricultural products.
Russia has re-opened its market for meat products from an Argentine and a Paraguayan company and banned such imports from five Australian companies, the veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.
Argentina announced on Tuesday a package of measures to soften the impact of the global crisis by boosting investments and protecting jobs. The plan includes tax breaks to encourage companies to retain workers and incentives for savers and companies to bring back funds deposited overseas.
OECD countries have reaffirmed their commitments on aid to developing countries and undertaken to abstain from trade protectionism, as part of a concerted drive to shore up the world economy and combat recession.
Argentina's trade surplus was 1.13 billion dollars in October, unchanged from a year earlier, the government announced this week. Earlier in the month the government had anticipated that the trade surplus totalled 11.37 billion US dollars in the January-October period.
Argentina can meet its debt obligations despite the global financial crisis and a slowing economy, said Economy Minister Carlos Fernández. The state has the necessary resources to meet its 2009 debt obligations, even taking into account the difficult conditions in the international financial markets, he said.