Economy

• Tuesday, February 21st 2017 - 10:52 UTC

  Argentina in April will lower 35% tariff on computers and laptops imports

  

  Argentina will get rid of a 35% tariff on imports of computers, laptops and tablets, the Production Ministry said on Monday, part of a larger effort to lower consumer prices and roll back protectionist policies.

• Monday, February 20th 2017 - 10:42 UTC

  Tony Blair proposes a cross-party movement to rethink Brexit: “ideologues are driving the bus”

  

  Tony Blair has called on pro-Europeans to form a new cross-party movement to persuade the public they were wrong to vote to leave the EU. In an impassioned speech, the former prime minister said “progressives” should make it their “mission” to reverse the outcome of the referendum last June.

• Friday, February 17th 2017 - 10:46 UTC

  Korea's Hanjin Shipping, world's seventh largest, goes down

  

  Hanjin Shipping used to be one of the world's top 10 shipping companies, but now it faces the final curtain. This Friday is the deadline for the firm to be declared bankrupt by a South Korean court after months of uncertainty. Hanjin's collapse is the largest to hit the shipping sector and it sent shockwaves through the industry.

• Friday, February 17th 2017 - 10:25 UTC

  Mexico looking at Argentina and Brazil as an alternative for US corn

  

  Mexican politicians are saber rattling against the US agriculture sector, and it looks like Argentina is ready to fill the gap. In effect Mexico's agriculture minister said on Thursday he will lead a business delegation to Argentina and Brazil to explore buying yellow corn, part of a drive to lessen Mexico's U.S. dependence given uncertainty over President Donald Trump's trade policies.

• Thursday, February 16th 2017 - 16:30 UTC

  Brazil forecasts record soy and corn harvests, on good climate conditions

  

  Conab, the Brazilian crop supply agency lifted its forecast for the second-season corn crop by some 2.5m tons, citing good weather. Conab forecast the Brazilian safrinha crop, which is sown after soybeans are harvested, up 44% year-on-year, to 58.59m tons. This compares to the 56.10m tons Cobab forecast in January.

• Thursday, February 16th 2017 - 12:40 UTC

  US producer prices in January record highest gain in four years

  

  U.S. producer prices recorded their largest gain in more than four years in January amid increases in the cost of energy products, but a strong dollar continued to keep underlying inflation at the factory gate tame.

• Thursday, February 16th 2017 - 10:59 UTC

  Brexit Minister admits some parliamentary “ping pong”, but March timetable stands

  

  British ministers are braced for a parliamentary battle and are prepared for the Article 50 legislation to be rewritten by the House of Lords, David Davis has indicated. The Brexit Secretary said he expected some parliamentary “ping pong”, with the Bill being sent back and forth between the Commons and the Lords, suggesting he expected peers to defeat the Government and make changes to the tightly-worded legislation.

• Thursday, February 16th 2017 - 10:43 UTC

  Thirty tons of Venezuelan currency are seized in Paraguay; smuggled from Brazil

  

  Central Bank employees will count about 30 tons of Venezuelan currency seized in a private house in Paraguay, while officials try to figure out why the vast quantity of 50- and 100-bolivar bills was brought into the country. The cash was discovered in Salto del Guaira, a city about 370 kilometers northeast of the capital of Asuncion, on the border with Brazil in a region known for the contraband trade.

• Wednesday, February 15th 2017 - 09:12 UTC

  Brazilian currency at its strongest against the US dollar since July 2015

  

  The Brazilian real gained on Tuesday to its strongest level in more than a year and a half, following a rise in capital inflows and after the central bank resumed currency intervention following a two-week pause. The real firmed 0.45% to 3.096 real per dollar, its strongest showing since July 2015.

• Tuesday, February 14th 2017 - 12:17 UTC

  Petrobras credit rating raised to BB-: improved governance “compares well with those of its peers”

  

  Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday raised its corporate credit rating on Petrobras, one notch, from B+ to BB-. The rating change does not lift Petrobras out of the non-investment grade category, but it lowers the risk from “highly speculative” to “speculative.”