Economy

• Thursday, February 7th 2019 - 10:29 UTC

  Brazil central bank leaves interest rates at record low 6.5%

  

  Brazil’s central bank left interest rates at a record low on Wednesday as expected, and signaled it is in no rush to change them even though inflationary pressures have cooled. The bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee, Copom, voted unanimously to keep the benchmark Selic rate at 6.5% for the seventh straight meeting.

• Thursday, February 7th 2019 - 10:05 UTC

  Manufacturing in Argentina was 5% down during 2018

  

  Manufacturing performance in Argentina during 2018 was one of the worst since the 2001/02 collapse and melting of the country's economy according to the latest release from the stats office, Indec. Manufacturing dropped 14.7% in December compared to the same month in 2017, ending 2018 with an overall decrease of 5%.

• Thursday, February 7th 2019 - 10:00 UTC

  Argentina's auto production down 32.2% in January compared to a year ago

  

  Auto production in Argentina continued to fall at the beginning of the year, having dropped 32.2% compared to twelve months before. This means total January auto production was 14.803 units, which is 7.055 less than in January 2018, 21.858. The figures were made public by Argentina's Automobile Manufacturers Association, Adefa.

• Thursday, February 7th 2019 - 09:23 UTC

  Theresa May on “alternative arrangements” mission to Brussels and Dublin

  

  The British Prime Minister Theresa May will visit Dublin on Friday evening for Brexit talks, Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. Mr Varadkar was speaking after his meeting with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels this afternoon.

• Thursday, February 7th 2019 - 07:44 UTC

  Bank Of America: Oil Demand Growth To Hit Zero Within A Decade

  

  By 2030, oil demand could hit a peak and then enter decline, according to a new report. For the next decade or so, oil demand should continue to grow, although at a slower and slower rate. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the annual increase in global oil consumption slows dramatically in the years ahead. By 2024, demand growth halves, falling to just 0.6 million barrels per day (mb/d), down from 1.2 mb/d this year.

• Wednesday, February 6th 2019 - 08:45 UTC

  Brussels insists the Irish backstop agreed with PM May is the “only operational solution”

  

  Brussels has stepped up its opposition to attempts to reopen Theresa May’s Brexit deal as senior Tories began talks on alternatives to the Irish backstop. The European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the backstop was the “only operational solution” to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.

• Wednesday, February 6th 2019 - 08:41 UTC

  Forty UK trade agreements at risk in the event of a no deal Brexit, warns CBI

  

  The UK risks “crashing out” of 40 trade agreements spanning five continents in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a business organization has warned. The Confederation of British Industry, CBI, said there were “hugely damaging implications” for the UK if it had to leave trade deals it has through its membership of the European Union.

• Wednesday, February 6th 2019 - 08:37 UTC

  UK's service sector stagnated in January: new orders fell for the first time in 30 months

  

  The UK's service sector stagnated last month, with new orders falling for the first time in two-and-a-half years, according to the IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI). The figures showed a reading of 50.1 in January lower than December's 51.2.

• Tuesday, February 5th 2019 - 09:35 UTC

  Trump's pick for the World Bank, a skeptic of multilateral institutions

  

  The Trump administration has notified World Bank shareholders that President Donald Trump intends to pick senior Treasury Department official David Malpass as the U.S. nominee to lead the development lender, people familiar with the decision said on Monday.

• Tuesday, February 5th 2019 - 07:40 UTC

  Falklands' government and BFSAI plan to build 70 new houses in the next three years

  

  The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) with the support of British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) are seeking expressions of interest from developers and investors wanting to find out more about an ambitious range of housing development opportunities in the Falkland Islands.