Economy

• Wednesday, November 14th 2018 - 08:50 UTC

  Italy ignores EC deadline and keeps to its high spending budget

  

  The Italian government has defied the European Commission by sticking to its big-spending budget plan. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said a deficit target of 2.4% and a growth forecast of 1.5% were unchanged.

• Wednesday, November 14th 2018 - 08:08 UTC

  Weights and measures conference to re-calibrate a kilogram

  

  Looking like a museum piece, a replica of the prototype to determine the exact unit of measurement for a kilogram was displayed under glass at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan.

• Wednesday, November 14th 2018 - 07:46 UTC

  Japan's central bank owns more assets than the country's whole economy

  

  Japan's central bank has become the first among Group of Seven nations to own assets collectively worth more than the country's entire economy, following a half-decade spending spree designed to accelerate weak price growth.

• Tuesday, November 13th 2018 - 11:18 UTC

  S&P downgrades Argentina's long term sovereign debt from “B+” to “B”

  

  Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded Argentina's sovereign long term credit rating from “B+” to “B” and reviewed the country's debt prospects to “stable”, following on the “negative” review from last August.

• Tuesday, November 13th 2018 - 10:42 UTC

  Bolsonaro's economic team incorporates another Chicago orthodox liberal

  

  Joaquim Levy, managing director and World Bank chief financial officer, has been tapped to be the next president of Brazil’s national economic and social development bank BNDES, news advanced to a column in daily O Estado de S. Paulo published on Sunday.

• Tuesday, November 13th 2018 - 07:47 UTC

  UK and EU negotiators must reach an agreement by Wednesday evening

  

  UK ministers have been told “judgment day is coming” over Brexit as the UK and EU strive for a deal within 48 hours. Officials are trying to hammer out an agreement on the terms of the UK's exit by Wednesday to enable EU leaders to agree it by the end of the month.

• Tuesday, November 13th 2018 - 07:08 UTC

  The pound falls to US$ 1.286 in Monday trading on Brexit uncertainty

  

  The pound has sunk in volatile trading after reports that a Brexit deal was near were downplayed by UK officials. Downing Street said “substantial issues” still need to be resolved as negotiators try to secure an agreement over the UK's exit from the EU.

• Monday, November 12th 2018 - 18:13 UTC

  Oil producing countries agree on need to cut down crude output due to oversupply

  

  They call it “production adjustments,” but in reality most major oil extracting countries agreed Sunday new strategies regarding crude output were needed in light of the surplus accrued over the past few months.

• Monday, November 12th 2018 - 13:27 UTC

  Argentina's industrial activity in September down 11.5% in the last twelve months

  

  Argentine industrial activity plunged 11.5% year-on-year in September – the biggest drop in 16 years. The INDEC national statistics bureau said that manufacturing witnessed a fifth consecutive month of decline, following drops of 1.2% in May, 8.1% in June, 5.7% in July and 5.6% in August. It’s the biggest contraction since July 2002.

• Monday, November 12th 2018 - 07:11 UTC

  FAO Food Price Index dipped in October pushed by dairy, meat and vegetable oils

  

  International food commodity prices dipped in October, as falling dairy, meat and vegetable oils prices more than offset a surge in sugar prices, the United Nations said. The FAO Food Price Index, a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 163.5 points in October, down 0.9 percent from September and 7.4 percent below its level a year earlier.