After having formally launched last Friday the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, the region in on track to creating a Central Bank and a common currency announced this week Brazilian president Lula da Silva.
Paraguay expects to see its share of the energy business with Brazil to increase to at least two billion US dollars said an energy expert and advisor to Paraguayan president elect Fernando Lugo.
Argentina's trade surplus narrowed 30% in April from a year earlier to a lower-than-expected 864 million US dollars as surging imports offset high commodities export prices, according to official data from the Argentine government.
United States are driving much less forced by fuel prices, continuing a trend which began last November and has been confirmed by the latest March 2008 release from the Federal Highway Administration, FHWA.
Uruguay's annual oil bill is set to jump 32% to 1.8 billion US dollars if the barrel of crude remains on average at 130 US dollars admitted Uruguayan private sector consultants who anticipated a far worst impact scenario if energy prices keep spiraling.
Despite near stagnant income growth Chile has the third largest income growth in Latinamerica. Chilean workers' wages rose 8.6% from this time last year. However, consumer price inflation surged at 8%, so real incomes grew a mere 0.6% compared to the first quarter of 2007, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported.
Farmland prices in Brazil have risen sharply of late, driven up by rising international commodities prices, especially grains, agricultural analysts AgraFNP said in a report released this week.
The US Federal Reserve injected 75 billion US dollars liquidity into the banking system on Tuesday but a monetary pause in the near future is possible as the central bank's interest-rate reductions take effect.
World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday that the negotiating documents put forward this week on agriculture and industrial goods trade proved a platform for intensified work in the coming weeks.
Brazil's government managed oil corporation Petrobras said on Tuesday that according to media reports it is now the third-largest publicly-traded company in the Americas.