Shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland are to vote on a £20 billion bail-out plan which could put nearly 60% of the company in public hands. RBS, one of the worst hit by the banking turmoil, has called a general meeting in Edinburgh to approve the rescue.
European Union farm ministers have agreed to reform agricultural policy by shifting more subsidies away from production and liberalising the dairy market. The deal on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy came on Thursday after marathon all-night talks.
A world economic confidence index released Thursday dropped to its lowest level in 20 years amid further news of heavy losses on global markets and an ongoing crisis among the world's carmakers.
For the first time a global economic crisis will not hit Latinamerica and in 2009 the region's economy will experience positive growth in the range of 2%, according to the president of one of Spain's leading banks.
The Argentina's Agriculture Secretariat announced that it expects a record 18 million hectares of soybean for the coming 2008/09 soybean area, up from 16.6 million hectares a year ago.
A free trade agreement to be signed by China and Peru in March will go into effect in the second half of 2009, if everything goes as planned, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced.
Spain is likely to slip into recession in the fourth quarter and stay there during 2009, Bank of Spain governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said on Wednesday in Madrid.
United States consumer prices dropped by a record 1% in October compared with the previous month, as fuel costs kept falling for a third month in a row. Fuel prices were not the only reason for the record drop, as core prices, which exclude food and energy, fell for the first time since 1982.
Mercosur senior members, Argentina and Brazil agreed to sponsor an increase in the common external tariff (AEC) on several products from third countries, during a meeting Monday of the Bilateral Trade Monitoring Committee held in Buenos Aires
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised real help for families and businesses to battle recession as he paved the way for tax cuts to be announced next week.