Economy

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Can art save Uruguay's gem mines?

  

  A Uruguayan mining company is turning to art to beat the effects of the global economic slowdown on its amethyst exports.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Wall Street below 7.000 benchmark drags global markets

  

  Markets have fallen worldwide, rattled by fears that turmoil in the financial sector is far from over. On Wall Street, the US Dow Jones index fell below 7,000 points for the first time since October 1997.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Central banker upbeat on Brazil's capacity to cope slowdown

  

  Brazil's economy is in a strong position to weather the financial crisis and will grow above the global average this year, Brazil's Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles said on Sunday in Portugal.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  “Public opinion” court will not accept UK banker's pension

  

  Sir Fred Goodwin will not get his ?650,000-plus pension even if he is legally entitled to it, Commons Leader Harriet Harman vowed in the strongest Government attack yet on the former banking chief.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Argentine peso slides under “managed devaluation”

  

  The Argentine peso continued to slide against the US dollar on Monday having lost four cents closing at 3.62. This has been the non official Central Bank policy of “managed devaluation” to help boost the country's exports and keep pace with the currency depreciation of Argentina's main trading partner, Brazil's Real.

• Monday, March 2nd 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Latam expansion forecast 0.7%, but recovery late 2010

  Latinamerican economies are forecasted to expand 0.7% this year, well below the 4.2% of 2008, but a surprising performance, if proved right, when all major economies face negative estimates.

• Sunday, March 1st 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  US economy recorded lowest growth in '08 since '01: 1.1%

  The US economy shrank by 6.2% in the last three months of 2008, official figures have shown, a far sharper fall than had previously been reported. Plunging exports and the biggest fall in consumer spending in 28 years dragged the annualised figure down from an earlier estimate of 3.8%.

• Sunday, March 1st 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Venezuela's Chavez sends soldiers to take over rice mills

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent troops on Saturday to temporarily take over rice processing plants. Chavez accused some firms of overcharging by refusing to produce rice at prices set by the government and warned some companies could be nationalised if they tried to interfere with supplies of the grain.

• Sunday, March 1st 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Plant closures cause turmoil in Brazilian cattle industry

  Brazil's fourth largest Brazilian exporter of beef has halted slaughtering operations at all 11 of its plants and sent workers home, local Brazilian media reports. In addition, Independencia has not paid cattle suppliers for several days and has returned most cattle to suppliers.

• Sunday, March 1st 2009 - 23:00 UTC

  Euro-zone: record high jobless: record low inflation

  Euro-zone unemployment rose more than economists expected in January and inflation slowed. The jobless rate in the Euro zone increased to 8.2%, the highest in more than two years, from 8.1% in December, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said Friday.