Brazil's trade surplus shrank to 882 million US dollars in February, less than one third of the same month a year ago 2.9 billion US dollars, according to the country's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Chile's Central Bank (BC) president Jose De Gregorio cautioned this week against speculation on the low US dollar, warning that, when the currency begins to regain value, such actions could cause significant financial losses.
The mounting global credit crisis could develop into a financial contagion and could wipe 800 billion US dollars of value from the books of US and global financial institutions, an official of the International Monetary Fund said.
Argentina became in 2007 the world's leading exporter of horse meta, totaling 35.755 tons equivalent to 87.5 million US dollars, according to the latest report from the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Secretary.
The stand off between the Argentine government and striking farmers who are protesting against export taxes on grains, beef and dairy produce has yet to see effective signals of a cooling of the situation or the possibility of a dialogue.
The Federal Reserve cut US interest rates sharply (0.75%) in an attempt to restore confidence to nervous financial markets and boost the ailing economy. However the cut was smaller than markets expected and the rate now stands at 2.25% (down from 3%), almost at inflation level.
Worry about the damage a growing credit crisis is inflicting on an ailing U.S. economy led the Federal Reserve to make a rare weekend move, lowering a key lending rate before Wall Street opened Monday.
Brazilian farmers are set to receive a record 85 billion US dollars this year riding on high commodity prices and a bigger crop. This represents a 14.4% increase over the previous year in real value, according to the latest data from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
One of the United States leading investment banks, Bear Stearns received on Friday emergency funding, in a move that raises fears that one of Wall Street's biggest names is on the verge of collapsing.
Argentine farmers protesting higher grain and oilseeds export taxes have decided to extend their two days strike until next Wednesday because there has been no signals or reply from the government to their request to meeting authorities. Dairy farmers announced they were joining the strike.