Economy

• Thursday, March 4th 2021 - 09:24 UTC

  Argentina's banks face a tough year: bad loans, inflation and regulations

  

  Rising inflation plus bad loans and government regulations anticipate a tough 2021 according to the CEO of Argentina's biggest private bank by market capitalization. “If inflation is high, there is a risk that bank results will fall to very low or negative levels in real terms,” Fabian Kon said in an interview in Buenos Aires.

• Thursday, March 4th 2021 - 07:07 UTC

  Argentina and the IMF: Another Default in the Works?

  

  By Arturo Porzecanski (*) The following was published in the Americas Quarterly, a contribution from a leading emerging-market economist writes. The seeds for the latest chapter in Argentina’s long history of confrontations with the International Monetary Fund were planted about a year ago, on the eve of the global pandemic.

• Wednesday, March 3rd 2021 - 09:56 UTC

  Uruguayan president addresses Congress and anticipates a year of structural reforms

  

  Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou addressed Congress on Tuesday to report on his first year and one day in office, underlining the extraordinary 2020 pandemic year which surprised the world, and Uruguay, but he also made several announcements referred to future activities and investments.

• Wednesday, March 3rd 2021 - 08:40 UTC

  Brazil's currency losing ground: central bank chief says it is not justified by economic fundamentals

  

  With public finances threatened, Brazil’s Real has suffered as investors adjust to changing liquidity conditions globally, but some of it has not been justified by economic fundamentals, central bank President Roberto Campos Neto said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, March 3rd 2021 - 08:38 UTC

  Producer price inflation in Brazil anticipates Central bank will raise interest rates

  

  Brazil's statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday the monthly rate of producer price inflation kicked off this year at its second highest, with prices rising across all 24 activities surveyed.

• Tuesday, March 2nd 2021 - 09:58 UTC

  Argentine president attacks opposition, Judiciary, media and economic powers

  

  In a defiant speech before the Legislative that launched the campaign for the October midterm elections, Argentine president Alberto Fernandez on Monday opened the 139th Congressional period of ordinary sessions with a barrage of attacks on the opposition, Judiciary, media and the concentrated economic powers.

• Tuesday, March 2nd 2021 - 09:54 UTC

  Bolsonaro promises to sign on Tuesday a decree suspending a tax on diesel to prevent a truckers strike

  

  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he would suspend a tax on diesel fuel, to try and placate truckers, but the government would instead hike taxes on banks to offset lost revenue.

• Sunday, February 28th 2021 - 11:21 UTC

  A million foreign workers are believed to have left Britain: reverse migration, lockdown, Brexit

  

  Foreign workers are leaving Britain at the fastest pace since World War II, presenting a challenge to an economy already roiled by Brexit and the coronavirus. London alone has lost 700,000 people over the last year, recent research suggests.

• Sunday, February 28th 2021 - 10:35 UTC

  Bolsonaro argues state controlled companies should fulfill a social function

  

  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that the country’s state-controlled companies should fulfill a social function and any different understanding by their chief executives was unacceptable.

• Sunday, February 28th 2021 - 10:11 UTC

  Caged cattle in a rogue vessel stranded in the Mediterranean will be sacrificed

  

  Some 864 head of cattle aboard the ship “Karim Allah” are to be sacrificed, Spanish authorities confirmed on Saturday, following days of controversy over the animals' health.