Economy

• Tuesday, May 12th 2009 - 10:39 UTC

  Nobel laureates warn about risks of a “lost decade”

  

  Nobel Economics laureate Edgard Prescott and Joseph Stiglitz warned Monday of a “lost decade” and a worsening of the global financial crisis in the short term during a forum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The “lost decade” reference is to the stagnation of the economy as happened with Japan during the nineties.

• Tuesday, May 12th 2009 - 10:03 UTC

  Global economy close to “inflection point” says leading central bankers

  

  The global economy has stopped its steep slide and is on the verge of making the long, slow climb back toward stability, said European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet who chaired on Monday a meeting of the world's leading central bankers.

• Tuesday, May 12th 2009 - 05:24 UTC

  Russia Second Largest Arms Exporter; South America Promising Market

  

  Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI latest data on global arms transfers published this week reveal that Russia remains the second largest arms exporter in the world, accounting for a quarter of global exports of major conventional arms.

• Tuesday, May 12th 2009 - 04:46 UTC

  General Motors admit bankruptcy “more likely” on June deadline

  

  US auto maker General Motors' top executive said Monday that it's more likely the company will file for US bankruptcy than meet a June 1 government deadline to restructure.

• Monday, May 11th 2009 - 10:31 UTC

  British banks CEOs dampen expectations of a swift recovery

  

  Bad debts at part-nationalised UK Royal Bank of Scotland could soar to almost £12 billion this year, the bank has said. RBS, which is 70.3% owned by the British taxpayer, posted loans losses of £2.9 billion for the first quarter of 2009, but directors said full-year bad debts could be “at least” four times as high.

• Monday, May 11th 2009 - 10:25 UTC

  New mine increases Chile’s state-owned copper company reserves by 20%

  

  Chilean state-owned mining company CODELCO announced last week its discovery of a new mine site near its existing División Andina site (Region V), some 80 kilometres north of Santiago.

• Monday, May 11th 2009 - 08:07 UTC

  Peru private sector confident the crisis “has reached the bottom”

  

  Peru’s main private business confederation believes the current economic crisis “has reached the bottom” in the country and forecasts the economy will experience an annual expansion of 3.5%.

• Saturday, May 9th 2009 - 07:40 UTC

  Ten US leading banks need 74.6 billion in extra funds

  

  US bank Wells Fargo has said it plans to raise 7.5 billion US dollars from selling new shares, a day after the US Treasury said 10 banks needed to boost reserves. Morgan Stanley is also hoping to raise 3.5 billion from share sales. Bank of America said it planned to sell assets and raise capital to secure the 33.9 billion it needs.

• Saturday, May 9th 2009 - 07:22 UTC

  Bank of the South takes off with 7 billion USD initial capital

  

  Finance ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela reached Friday in Buenos Aires the definitive agreement for the launching of the Bank of the South, a multilateral organization to help fund development and infrastructure projects.

• Saturday, May 9th 2009 - 06:34 UTC

  April car sales in Brazil fall 13.7% from the previous month

  

  Automobile sales in Brazil fell 13.7% in April from the previous month as consumer demand waned after four straight months of gains, the national automakers' association Anfavea said on Friday. Sales also fell 10.3% from April 2008 to 234.400 and automobile output dropped 6.9% month-on-month in April and was down 15.8% from a year earlier to 254.700 units.