Economy

• Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Ecuador announces second bond interest payment default

  

  Ecuador announced it is defaulting on a second bond payment, interest on 650 million US dollars in Global 15 bonds due through 2015. The announcement comes three days after President Rafael Correa said the country would not make a similar 30.6 million USD payment on Global 12 bonds.

• Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina bolsters size of the stimulus package to 32 b. USD

  

  Argentina will spend the equivalent of 16.6 billion USD on infrastructure projects next year in an attempt to create 380,000 construction-related jobs it was announced Monday in Buenos Aires.

• Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Foreign workers monopolize almost all new UK jobs

  

  Almost all the new jobs created in Britain in the last seven years have gone to foreign workers. Of the 1.3million jobs created since 2001, the vast majority - went to non-UK nationals, official figures show. At the same time the number of UK-born workers in employment fell by 62,000.

• Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  With zero rate, further cuts not an option for the US Fed

  

  The US Federal Reserve has slashed its key interest rate from 1% to a range of between zero and 0.25% as it battles the country's recession. In its statement, the Federal Reserve warned that “the outlook for economic activity has weakened further”.

• Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  UK November retail inflation drops to 4.1%; deflation fears

  

  United Kingdom consumer price index fell to 4.1% in November from 4.5% in October. As a result, the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King wrote his third letter of the year to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, explaining why inflation was so far above its target level (2%) and what the Monetary Policy Committee was planning to do to bring it back down again.

• Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Major world banks caught in Madoff's hedge fund con

  

  Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed they are victims of an alleged fraud which has lost 50 billion US dollars. Bernard Madoff, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.

• Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Siemens admits bribery payments and is fined 1.4 b. USD

  

  Electronics giant Siemens AG has agreed on Monday to pay 1.4 billion US dollars to US and German authorities after the company allegedly engaged in bribery, the SEC said in a release.

• Sunday, December 14th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Development of energy industry boosts Magallanes

  

  The discovery and exploitation of new oil and gas wells in the extreme south of Chile has generated a boom for the Magallanes Region which is creating a significant demand for technicians and specialized labour.

• Sunday, December 14th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Wall Street hedge fund con: where are the US regulators?

  

  A firm that counted itself a client of a broker accused of a 50 billion US dollars Wall Street con has criticised US regulators for what it says are “systemic failures”. Bramdean Alternatives said the charges against Bernard Madoff raised “fundamental questions” about the American financial regulatory system.

• Friday, December 12th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Ecuador defaults on bonds; promised restructure

  

  Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has ordered halting payment on foreign bonds he calls “illegal” and “illegitimate”. If this is the case it would be Ecuador's second default in a decade.