Economy

• Monday, February 12th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  WTO praises Argentina but warns about inflation

  

  Argentina has successfully emerged from one of the worst recessions in its history, and the economy has been growing at a fast pace since 2003, according to a World Trade Organization Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Argentina released this week.

• Sunday, February 11th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  G 7 demand more exchange rate flexibility for China's Yuan

  

  Finance ministers and bankers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, G7, renewed pressure on China to relax controls over its currency. China promised more flexibility but gave no indication of time or percentages.

• Saturday, February 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Emerging markets diversity outpaces JP Morgan

  

  JP Morgan's family of EMBI (Emerging Markets Bond Index) indexes, once seen as the most important measure of aversion to developing countries' risk, no longer expresses the diversity of fast-growing emerging markets, the bank admitted in a report

• Friday, February 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Bush administration pushes for FTA with Colombia and Peru

  

  United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week requested from Congress the ratification of the Free Trade Agreements, FTA, which the White House has signed with Peru and Colombia.

• Friday, February 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina's January basic food basket index up 2.95%

  Argentina's basic food basket consumed by the average family jumped 2.59% last January over December, which is more than double the official consumer prices index for the first month of 2007.

• Friday, February 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  G 7 Ministers address world financial markets' stability

  

  Europe's concern with the stability of world financial markets is one of the main issues to be addressed by the seven most industrialized countries Finance ministers meeting, G-7, which is meeting in Germany and will see China participate for the first time in the main debates.

• Friday, February 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Growing mineral exports boost Peruvian economy

  Peru's Central Bank raised the country's economic growth forecast for 2007 from 5.7 to 6.8%, following a 7.9% expansion in 2006, which was the highest since 1995.

• Thursday, February 8th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Credibility blow to Kirchner's price controls policy

  

  Argentine president Nestor Kirchner tried Thursday to disengage this week's rise in the country's risk rating and drop in sovereign bonds, from the controversy over the ousting of the head of the Statistics and Census Office (INDEC) responsible for calculating inflation.

• Thursday, February 8th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  ECB warns about medium term risks to price stability

  

  The European Central Bank, ECB, decided Thursday to keep its key interest rate on hold at 3.5%, but pointed out that “strong vigilance” remains essential to ensure that “risks to price stability over the medium term do not materialize”.

• Thursday, February 8th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Bank of England leaves rates unchanged at 5.25%

  

  The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 5.25% following a surprise rise last month. In January, the Bank increased rates from 5.0% to 5.25% in an attempt to curb inflation, which had hit an 11-year high of 3% the month before.