Economy

• Tuesday, February 5th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Wall Street: Not-So-Super Tuesday Dow Plunges 370 Points

  

  Stocks slumped for a second straight session Tuesday after Wall Street saw an unexpected contraction in the service sector as evidence that the economy is sinking into recession. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 350 points, while bond prices rose.

• Tuesday, February 5th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Brazil could complaint with WTO over EU ban on meat imports

  

  Brazil on Tuesday sharply criticized the European Union's decision to temporarily ban Brazilian beef imports and warned it could file a complaint with the World Trade Organization.

• Tuesday, February 5th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  World Bank Appoints Chinese Academic as Top Economist

  

  The World Bank appointed Chinese national Justin Lin as its chief economist, the first time the post has gone to a candidate outside Europe and the U.S.

• Monday, February 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Uruguay's “double risk”: inflation or exports incentive loss

  

  Uruguay's consumer prices index, CPI increased 0.78% in January, below expectations but the largest monthly rise since last August, 1.73%. January's CPI a year ago was 1.77% and in 2006, 1.37%. The last twelve months CPI now stands at 7.44%, still above the 3 to 7% Central Bank target.

• Monday, February 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Cheap US dollar, strong imports erode Brazil's trade surplus

  Brazil's trade surplus narrowed to a 5 and a half year low in January as a cheaper dollar and rising consumer demand pushed imports to a record high. Imports increased to 12.3 billion US dollars in January from 10.6 billion in December.

• Monday, February 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Uruguay keeps consolidated budget deficit on target

  

  In spite of a surge in expenditure in the last quarter Uruguay managed to keep to its fiscal target in 2007 with a budget deficit equivalent to 0.34% of GDP, below the 0.5% established in the Central Bank financial program.

• Monday, February 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  RFA Lyme Bay has sailed on a mission to Tristan da Cunha

  

  The MoD reported that RFA Lyme Bay was preparing to sail to Tristan da Cunha, where urgent repairs to the main harbour are required.

• Monday, February 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Bernanke Makes Bulls From Dollar Bears Seeing Growth

  

  Ben S. Bernanke's decision to lower interest rates 1.25 percentage points last month will end the dollar's two-year slide, according to the world's biggest currency traders.

• Sunday, February 3rd 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Help for Chilean exporters to counter US dollar meltdown

  

  Chile announced several measures to prop the competitiveness of Chilean exports that have been particularly affected by the international collapse of the US dollar and which has motivated reiterated claims from the industry.

• Sunday, February 3rd 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Recession in the air: first decline in US jobs since August 2003

  United States has seen the first decline in employment since August 2003, providing fresh evidence that the US economy could be entering a recession. Employers cut 17,000 jobs from their payrolls in January, Labor Department figures showed. Economists had been expecting a rise of 80,000.