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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 2nd 2025 - 05:13 UTC

Economy

  • Tuesday, May 1st 2018 - 07:20 UTC

    WhatsApp CEO steps down: allegedly clashes with parent company Facebook

    “The team is stronger than ever and it'll continue to do amazing things... And I'll still be cheering WhatsApp on - just from the outside”, said Mr. Koum

    WhatsApp chief executive Jan Koum is to quit the popular messaging service he co-founded. In a post on Facebook, he said he was “taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology”. However, according to a Washington Post report earlier on Monday, Mr Koum had clashed with parent company Facebook over Whatsapp's strategy.

  • Tuesday, May 1st 2018 - 07:00 UTC

    Tariffs dispute: Trump extends deadline for a month to EU, Canada and Mexico

    The Trump administration has reached agreements-in-principle with Argentina, Australia and Brazil, according to the White House statement

    President Donald Trump will delay imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union, Mexico and Canada until June 1 as he finalizes deals with them, the White House said in a statement. The administration has reached agreements-in-principle with Argentina, Australia and Brazil, according to the statement, which the White House released late Monday night.

  • Monday, April 30th 2018 - 09:04 UTC

    Last round of EU/Mercosur “useful”, but key issues remain to be resolved

    Talks ended earlier than expected, with Argentina and Uruguay leaving the table due to what they saw as a lack of decisiveness from Brazil and the EU.

    The European Union and Mercosur have made some progress on how to open their markets to cars, but ended free trade talks in Brussels on Friday with finger-pointing about who was holding up a deal. The EU and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay began on-off negotiations towards a trade alliance in 1999, with a fresh impetus since 2016.

  • Sunday, April 29th 2018 - 05:22 UTC

    Argentina increases basic rate 300 points to 30.25% to combat inflation

    “The decision was made with the aim of guaranteeing the disinflation process and the central bank is ready to act again if necessary,” the bank's statement said.

    Argentina's central bank surprised markets at the end of the week by jolting its key interest rate up to 30.25% from 27.25%, citing weakness of the local peso against the US dollar and vowing to act again if high inflation persists.

  • Saturday, April 28th 2018 - 10:22 UTC

    Bees victory: EU votes for a near total ban on insecticides

    Campaigners dressed in black and yellow bee suits rallied outside the headquarters of the EC in Brussels ahead of the vote for a ban on three key pesticide chemicals.(Pic AFP)

    European Union countries voted on Friday for a near-total ban on insecticides blamed for killing off bee populations, in what campaigners called a “beacon of hope” for the winged insects. Bees help pollinate 90 percent of the world’s major crops, but in recent years have been dying off from “colony collapse disorder,” a mysterious scourge blamed on mites, pesticides, virus, fungus, or a combination of these factors.

  • Saturday, April 28th 2018 - 06:59 UTC

    St Helena airport shrugs off ‘world’s most useless’ tag

    St Helena Airport. Photo: SHG Access office.

    Andreas Spaeth (*) The airport on the remote British Overseas Territory island St Helena, once dismissed as the “world’s most useless airport” by British media, is proving to be a reliable asset.

  • Friday, April 27th 2018 - 12:36 UTC

    UK economy grows at its slowest since 2012 in Q1; pound falls to US$ 1.380

    Bank of England governor Mark Carney hinted that interest rates could rise more gradually than expected due to uncertainty over Brexit and economic “mixed data”

    The UK economy grew at its slowest rate since 2012 in the first quarter of the year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. GDP growth was 0.1%, down from 0.4% in the previous quarter, driven by a sharp fall in construction output and a sluggish manufacturing sector.

  • Friday, April 27th 2018 - 10:47 UTC

    Mujica supports the FTA with Chile: Piñera begins his commercial tour avoiding Uruguay

    Mujica said that before “a weakened Mercosur”, Uruguay has to look for alternative incentives to improve trade stability.

    While Chilean President Sebastián Piñera started a commercial tour in Brazil last Thursday, in which he avoids Uruguay because the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Chile is blocked in the Uruguayan Parliament since 2016, ex-president José Mujica explained that he supports the FTA with Chile in order to look for “the best incentives to ensure commercial stability.” The bench of former president Mujica and the communist party refuse to approve the commercial agreement.

  • Friday, April 27th 2018 - 09:01 UTC

    Falklands operating budget surplus keeps increasing

    MLA Roger Spink, chair of the Standing Finance Committee explained the several “slippages” to which the capital program for 2017/18 has been subject (Pic Observa)

    The Falkland Islands forecast operating budget surplus for the current financial year sits at £33m, Standing Finance Committee (SFC) was told on Wednesday. The surplus, up from the previous forecast of £27m, has been boosted by fishing company corporation tax payments, which have been “significantly higher than budget.”

  • Thursday, April 26th 2018 - 09:23 UTC

    EU offers closer post-Brexit relation if UK remains in the customs union

    Britain says it will be dropping out of the EU’s single market and customs union after Brexit.

    The European Union could offer Britain a closer relationship after Brexit if Prime Minister Theresa May decides to stay in the bloc’s customs union, diplomats said. EU hopes London could change its stance on what ties it wants after Brexit after Britain’s upper house of parliament challenged the government on a key bill relating to May’s plan to quit the customs union.