OECD countries have reaffirmed their commitments on aid to developing countries and undertaken to abstain from trade protectionism, as part of a concerted drive to shore up the world economy and combat recession.
Argentina's trade surplus was 1.13 billion dollars in October, unchanged from a year earlier, the government announced this week. Earlier in the month the government had anticipated that the trade surplus totalled 11.37 billion US dollars in the January-October period.
Argentina can meet its debt obligations despite the global financial crisis and a slowing economy, said Economy Minister Carlos Fernández. The state has the necessary resources to meet its 2009 debt obligations, even taking into account the difficult conditions in the international financial markets, he said.
The Citicorp rescue effect which had markets soaring in Europe and United States also impacted in Latinamerica. Brazil's Bovespa was up 9.8% on Monday recovering most last week's losses and the Mexican IPC rose 7%.
The US Federal Reserve is to inject another 800 billion US dollars into the US economy in a further effort to stabilise the financial system. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the stimulus package aimed to make more lending available to consumers.
President-elect Barack Obama has outlined more details of his plans to stimulate the ailing US economy, at the same time as making cuts to the budget. He said budget reform was imperative and that the nation could not sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on unneeded projects.
The World Bank forecasts that China's GDP growth rate will be around 7.5% in 2009, down from 9.4% in 2008 and 11.9% in 2007.China's export growth is likely to be low in 2009 – around 3.5% (in real terms) compared to 11% in 2008.
The number of unemployed in OECD countries is expected to increase by about 8 million people over the next two years as the most serious recession since the early 1980s takes its toll on economic activity, according to the latest OECD Economic Outlook released on Tuesday.
The US government will guarantee $306bn of Citigroup's problem mortgages and other assets, and will also give the banking giant a $20bn cash injection after a collapse in its share price.
The 21 economies, which represent almost two thirds of the world's GDP pledged during a two-day summit in Lima, Peru not to erect new protectionist barriers for the next year, and to re-launch stalled World Trade Organization talks.