Asian and European leaders have called for comprehensive reform of the global financial system. Ending a summit in Beijing, they also urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to play a greater role in helping countries hit by the market turmoil. UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for action to help affected developing nations.
Asian and European leaders called for a concerted effort to weather a financial crisis that originated from the United States and has now spread globally as the 7th Asia-Europe meeting opened on Friday.
Latin American economic growth may slow more than expected in 2009 due to lower prices for the commodities that drive many of the region's economies, the International Monetary Fund said this week in Chile.
East Asian nations have pledged to set up an 80 billion US dollars swap scheme by mid-2009 to help protect the region from financial turmoil. The move by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is backed by South Korea, China and Japan.
The International Monetary Fund, which has announced its readiness to act in support of nations hit by fallout from the global financial turmoil, is holding talks with several countries about possible new lending programs. According to an official release IMF has 200 billion US dollars ready for loans.
Friday closed a tsunami impact trading week for Latinamerican markets accumulating massive losses as risk aversion and recession fears contagion from major markets spread to the rest of the world.
The Mexican peso ended trading on Friday at 13.70 to the US dollar after having fallen to a record 14.50. The Mexican central bank supported the currency with 1.1 billion US dollars.
The long term future of rural Falklands has been placed in the hands of its small population.
Venezuela's budget is forecasting 15% inflation and is based assuming oil prices of 60 US dollars per barrel next year, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez told the National Assembly this week.
Latinamerican markets plunged on Wednesday on fears of consequences from Argentina's plan to nationalize retirement funds spread to the region increasing risks of an already highly volatile global situation.