US retail sales and producer price figures have pointed to a weakening of demand in the world's largest economy. The first month of the 2008 federal budget showed a 55.6 billion US dollars deficit.
The foundation charter of the regional development Bank of the South will take place in Buenos Aires on December 9 and will be signed by the presidents from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, confirmed Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa.
United States president George W Bush will leave his successor a country in debt up to its ears, a depressed dollar as never seen before and a nation with a class structure closer to that of Mexico or Brazil, according to Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in an article published in the December edition of Vanity Fair.
Chile's government ratified its purchase of 50 million US dollars in shares from Corporacion Andina de Fomento, the Andean region development agency known as CAF, El Mercurio reported.
China's consumer prices rose sharply in October reaching a decade-high monthly inflation rate of 6.5% adding to pressure for measures to cool the politically sensitive continuous surge in food prices.
Developing countries are deeply divided about how to advance on global trade talks and few ministers will attend a meeting this week meant to show their unity.
Euro-zone finance ministers urged China to bear more responsibility for global financial stability as they prepared a top-level mission to lobby Beijing about its runaway trade surplus with Europe.
Economic growth will slow in most European economies in 2008, with a number of countries vulnerable to tightening credit because of rapid rises in housing costs or high levels of private debt, the International Monetary Fund has reported.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that a host of economic problems in United States, including the severe housing slump, will cause business growth to slow noticeably in coming months.
World cereal prices are expected to stay high during the next year because of low global stocks, production problems and continued strong demand, according to the latest forecast of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), released Wednesday.