Economy

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 09:34 UTC

  Latam Airlines expected to have a 51% controlling interest in Latam Brazil

  

  Chile’s LATAM Airlines Group SA has asked Brazil’s antitrust regulator Cade to boost its voting stake in LATAM Airlines Brazil to 51%, formalizing a controlling interest in Brazil’s No. 2 airline that for years it was unable to achieve because of local restrictions.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 09:17 UTC

  Ford closes oldest factory in Sao Paulo and exits heavy trucks business in Brazil

  

  Ford Motor Co. said on Tuesday it will close its oldest factory in Brazil and exit its heavy commercial truck business in South America, a move that could cost more than 2,700 jobs as part of a restructuring meant to end losses around the world. Ford previously said the global reorganization, to impact thousands of jobs and possible plant closures in Europe, would result in US$11 billion in charges.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 09:12 UTC

  Brexit melee: Mrs. May to Brussels to meet Juncker; on Thursday Corbyn talks to Barnier

  

  Theresa May will return to Brussels on Wednesday to continue talks on her Brexit deal. She will meet the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. Earlier, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay updated Cabinet on talks with the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 09:06 UTC

  Huawei founder: “there's no way the US can crush us: we are more advanced”

  

  Huawei Technologies founder Ren Zhengfei said “there’s no way the US can crush us”, according to an interview he gave to BBC. “The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always scale things down a bit,” he said.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 08:32 UTC

  UK record employment in 2018 fourth quarter; jobless rate 4%, lowest since 1975

  

  The number of people in work in the UK has continued to climb, with a record 32.6 million employed between October and December, the latest Office for National Statistics figure show. Unemployment was little-changed in the three-month period at 1.36 million.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2019 - 08:28 UTC

  Global trade growth forecasted to slow this year, says

  

  Global trade growth is on track to slide further the first quarter of 2019, the World Trade Organization said. WTO in September said it expects world merchandise trade growth will slow to 3.7% this year down from 3.9% in 2018.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 09:21 UTC

  Hammond visit to China called off amid reports of Beijing anger with UK defense actions

  

  A visit to China by Chancellor Phillip Hammond has been called off amid reports a speech by the UK's defense secretary angered Beijing. There were plans for trade talks between Mr Hammond and senior Chinese government figures during the brief visit this week. But last week, Gavin Williamson had indicated the UK's intention to send an aircraft carrier to the Pacific.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 09:20 UTC

  US/China trade talks resume in Washington... and are going “extremely well”

  

  US-China trade talks aimed at ending a damaging tariff war will resume from this Tuesday in Washington, the White House has announced. The last set of talks ended Friday in Beijing with no deal, though US President Donald Trump said the discussions were going “extremely well” and suggested he could extend a Mar 1 truce deadline for an agreement to be reached.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 08:57 UTC

  Trump's promise to Juncker: no additional import tariffs on EU cars... For the time being

  

  United States President Donald Trump has promised European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that he will not impose additional import tariffs on European cars for the time being, Juncker was quoted in a published interview as saying on Monday.

• Tuesday, February 19th 2019 - 08:54 UTC

  Honda will shut-down its plant in England by 2022; some 3.500 at stake

  

  Japanese car giant Honda is expected to announce the shutdown of its plant in south west England in 2022, putting 3,500 jobs at risk, media reports said on Monday. The car manufacturer is to announce the closure of its Swindon plant on Tuesday, according to Sky News, but still keep its European headquarters in nearby Bracknell.