Economy

Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Partisan support for US economy recovery plan flags

US President Barack Obama has called for urgent action on his 825 billion US dollars economic recovery plan, saying the American people expect it. Republican lawmakers are increasingly vocal in opposing the bill, complaining it is too expensive and unworkable.
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Spanish bank Santander will pay back for Madoff

Two law firms have filed a class action lawsuit in the United States against Spain's Banco Santander and one of its subsidiaries to recover money lost in an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme orchestrated by U.S. financier Bernard Madoff.
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Mexican migrant remittances fall for first time on record

Mexican migrant remittances fell in 2008 for the first time on record, Mexico's central bank said Tuesday. Remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income after oil and they plunged 3.6% to 25 billion US dollars in 2008 compared to 26 billion for the previous year.
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Fed pledges to keep exceptional “low interest rates”

The United States Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates at “exceptionally low levels,” and use “all available tools” to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth, as it warned that the outlook for the world's largest economy has weakened further in recent weeks.
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
IMF forecasts UK economy to contract 2.8% this year

The United Kingdom is expected to suffer the worst slump of all advanced nations in the “deepest recession since the Second World War”, according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook.
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Credit rating agencies admit errors before UK Parliament

Credit and risk rating agencies have admitted errors were made when assessing some of the financial instruments that have been blamed for the credit crunch. Representatives of the three main agencies - Standard & Poor's, Fitch, Moodys - were grilled by the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Brazil back steps on “electronic” import licence request

The Brazilian government officially denied Wednesday it had imposed import licences or was reverting to non tariff barriers on hundreds of products, a decision which had caused uproar mainly among Mercosur partners.
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Drought forces Argentine soy crop estimate down 16%

The extreme drought conditions which most of Argentina's rich farmland is suffering will have an impact on the soybean crop that is now estimated in the range of 40 million tons, down 16.7% from the previous crop according to the Argentine Association of Agriculture experimentation regional consortia, AACREA.
Tuesday, January 27th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Drought-devastated Argentina declares camp emergency

The Argentine government declared on Monday an agricultural emergency in areas affected by the worst drought to hit the country in four decades and which has extended to most of the country's farmlands.
Tuesday, January 27th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Protectionist Brazil: restrictions on 60% of imports

Brazil announced it has imposed restrictions on 60% of imports “to soften” the impact of the global crisis in its trade balance which in the first four weeks of January has registered a totally unexpected deficit of 645 million US dollars.