Economy

• Sunday, April 5th 2009 - 06:29 UTC

  Gibraltar converting from off-shore haven to regulated on shore finance centre

  

  The Gibraltar Government hopes to sign at least 12 tax agreements with countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] by November this year. Completing that number of information exchange agreements would allow Gibraltar to enter the top category of countries regarded by the OECD as those which substantially meet international tax standards, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Saturday, April 4th 2009 - 11:04 UTC

  Uruguay’s March inflation, 0.77% and 1.29% in first quarter

  

  Uruguay’s consumer inflation climbed 0.77% in March according to the release from the country’s Statistics Office. In the first quarter of 2009, retail prices have risen 1.29% and 7.53% in the last twelve months.

• Saturday, April 4th 2009 - 09:45 UTC

  Brazil and China discuss bilateral trade in Real and Yuan

  

  Brazilian President Lula da Silva said Friday that he supports alternatives to the dollar as the world's premier currency who anticipated the issue will be addressed when he visits China next month. Senior Chinese and Russian officials have talked in recent weeks about a new reserve currency to replace the dollar.

• Saturday, April 4th 2009 - 09:43 UTC

  With tax breaks, March auto industry sales in Brazil are record

  

  Auto industry sales in Brazil soared in March as consumers flocked to dealers to benefit from government tax breaks, according to data from the national dealers’ association Fenabrave.

• Saturday, April 4th 2009 - 05:16 UTC

  Uruguay de-listed from group of non cooperative tax havens

  

  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD) welcomed on Thursday the formal endorsement by Uruguay of its tax information exchange standards.

• Friday, April 3rd 2009 - 14:40 UTC

  OECD forecasts two digits unemployment in several countries by 2010

  

  Economic activity is expected to plummet by an average 4.3% in the OECD area in 2009 while by the end of 2010 unemployment rates in many countries will reach double figures for the first time since the early 1990s, according to the OECD’s Economic Outlook Interim Report

• Friday, April 3rd 2009 - 05:10 UTC

  Euro zone rate lowered to 1.25% and possibly to 1% in May

  

  The European Central Bank said Thursday it would lower its key lending rate a quarter of a percentage point to 1.25%, effective April 8. It is the sixth time the ECB has lowered its key rate since October 2008, when it stood at 4.25%, as it tries to boost economic activity.

• Thursday, April 2nd 2009 - 10:50 UTC

  Tepid isolated signs of recovery from Brazil

  

  Brazil’s latest statistics revealed some encouraging numbers. The foreign trade surplus in March was 1.77 billion US dollars, the same as the February surplus and slightly higher than forecasted. Although expected, industrial production rose 1.8% in February over January boosted by a slight recovery in credit availability and the automotive sector.

• Thursday, April 2nd 2009 - 08:11 UTC

  Punta Arenas unemployment remains the lowest in Chile

  

  Unemployment in the region of Magallanes, extreme south of Chile increased from 2.2 to 3.2% in the December-February quarter compared to the same period a year ago according to the latest release from the Chilean Statistics Office.

• Wednesday, April 1st 2009 - 11:03 UTC

  UK debt and deficit in excess of EU guidelines and climbing

  

  The United Kingdom government debt rose to £750.3 billion in 2008, more than half of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).