Economy

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 03:55 UTC

  Emergency credit aid for Brazil’s ailing meatpacking industry

  

  Brazil's government will offer a ten billion Reales credit line from BNDES, the National Development Bank to support activities in agribusiness, Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced. He added the funds would go mostly to support Brazil’s ailing meatpacking sector and would be offered at an annual interest rate of 11.25%.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 03:48 UTC

  Citibank first quarter pleasant surprise for banking sector

  

  Citigroup reported on Friday its first quarterly net profit in nearly two years, the latest US bank to see an improvement in its performance. It made a profit of 1.6 billion US dollars compared with a loss of 5.1 billion a year earlier. Revenues rose 99% to 24.8 billion.

• Friday, April 17th 2009 - 10:45 UTC

  US Fed “Beige Book” tries to send “stabilizing message”

  

  United States economic activity weakened in March, but there were some signs of stabilisation, the Federal Reserve said in its influential Beige Book. The report, used to set US interest rates, said “overall economic activity contracted further or remained weak”.

• Friday, April 17th 2009 - 10:40 UTC

  Stimulating domestic demand and unemployment, China’s priorities

  

  Annual growth in China's GDP slowed in the first quarter of 2009 to 6.1%, said the National Bureau of Statistics. This is the weakest growth since quarterly records began in 1992, but some analysts see signs of a recovery, reports BBC.

• Friday, April 17th 2009 - 08:48 UTC

  IMF predicts 2009 as “an awful year” but all are aware it’s a “global crisis”

  

  The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said Thursday that 2009 is essentially a lost year for the world economy, with millions of people at risk of being thrown back into poverty.

• Friday, April 17th 2009 - 07:30 UTC

  US second largest shopping mall owner files for bankruptcy protection

  

  General Growth Properties, United States second-largest shopping mall owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday after failing to reach an out of court consensus on how to restructure its 27 billion US dollars debt. The Chicago based corporation which owns more than 200 malls in 44 states said shoppers at its malls will not be affected by its bankruptcy filing.

• Thursday, April 16th 2009 - 12:08 UTC

  Brazil slashes primary budget surplus to stimulate economy

  

  Brazil's government cut its 2009 primary budget surplus target to 2.5% of GDP from 3.8% and set a target of 3.3% of GDP for the next three years, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Wednesday speaking at a Congressional hearing.

• Thursday, April 16th 2009 - 07:22 UTC

  US March consumer prices mark new annual declination record

  

  United States consumer prices fell in March and recorded their first annual drop in more than half a century, according to official figures from the Labour Department. The consumer price index fell 0.1% last month after energy prices declined. In February prices had risen 0.4%.

• Thursday, April 16th 2009 - 07:15 UTC

  World Bank plans to loan 14 billion USD to Latinamerica

  

  The World Bank expects to loan some 14 billion US dollars to Latinamerica this fiscal year, or almost three times what it lent in 2008, the bank's Vice-President for Latinamerica and the Caribbean, Pamela Cox told a conference call with reporters.

• Thursday, April 16th 2009 - 04:47 UTC

  Prime Minister Brown warns UK offshore tax havens

  

  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written to the UK’s offshore tax havens – including Gibraltar – warning them to meet international transparency standards within six months or face sanctions, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.