Economy

• Saturday, October 22nd 2016 - 10:31 UTC

  Uruguay expects a no-growth cruise season; Buenos Aires port rates discourage companies

  

  Uruguay is expecting some 150 cruise calls this coming season 2016/17 which begins next month and represents some 300.000 visitors, according to Tourism minister Liliam Kechichian who nevertheless admitted that growth prospects are somehow behind schedule because of the high costs of reaching and operating in the port of Buenos Aires.

• Saturday, October 22nd 2016 - 10:20 UTC

  Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Voyages will be operating from Miami by 2020

  

  Sir Richard Branson’s new Caribbean cruise line is moving forward, and it’s got a new name. At a press conference in Miami on Tuesday, the new cruise line announced that it will now operate under the name Virgin Voyages.

• Friday, October 21st 2016 - 18:17 UTC

  Brazilian prosecution after another can of worms, the national development bank, BNDES

  

  Brazil’s national development bank has frozen $13.5bn of funds for 47 overseas projects, including those in Angola, Mozambique, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, as yet more corruption charges are brought against politicians and executives arising from the Lava Jato corruption probe.

• Friday, October 21st 2016 - 18:00 UTC

  Falklands aims to double the number of nights spent by land-bases tourists by 2023

  

  Falkland Islands Tourist Board Interim CEO, Steph Middleton gave a short presentation on the growth of visitor numbers in recent years at this week’s public meeting. She said there were 1,461 land-based tourists last year, spending about £2m or £120 per person per night - the best year since 2007-8.

• Friday, October 21st 2016 - 14:20 UTC

  Falklands in short supply of fresh produce, because of changes in Chilean Customs procedures

  

  Falkland Islanders has been warned that fresh produce may be in short supply for some time to come due to changes in the Chilean Customs' procedures. Stanley Growers owner Tim Miller said that a large order for fruit and vegetables was not shipped from Santiago last week, as Customs officials at Punta Arenas insisted for the first time that LATAM airline provide them, in advance, with exact weight and contents of the cargo.

• Friday, October 21st 2016 - 08:25 UTC

  UK is still a full member of the EU and will attend all meetings, PM May tells Europe

  

  Prime Minister Theresa May told EU leaders that Britain would not just rubber-stamp agreements made between the other member states when they meet as 27. In her first European Council, she said that as long as the UK was a full member of the EU, it wanted a seat at the table for discussions over the bloc’s future.

• Friday, October 21st 2016 - 08:15 UTC

  Euro central bank leaves rates and stimulus program unchanged

  

  The European Central Bank left its key interest rates and its bond-buying stimulus program unchanged on Thursday as it seeks more data on the strength of Europe’s modest economic recovery. The decision came at a meeting of the bank’s 25 member governing council at its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.

• Friday, October 21st 2016 - 02:56 UTC

  Brazilian central bank lowers basic rate 0.25 points on more optimistic recovery data

  

  Brazil's central bank cut its key interest rate for the first time in more than three years on Wednesday as a new center-right government's reforms fuel hopes of a recovery in Latin America's largest economy. The bank lowered the benchmark Selic rate by 0.25 points, to 14%, still one of the world's highest, and cited a dip in inflation and forecasts that a long recession -- Brazil's worst in a century -- is nearing its end.

• Wednesday, October 19th 2016 - 22:09 UTC

  Eccentricity: Falklands' budget surpluses under-forecasting triggers lively debate

  

  While in the rest of the world, budget shortfalls and downplayed soaring deficits are the norm, a lively discussion ensued at this week’s Falkland Islands Standing Finance Committee when MLA Michael Poole suggested the forecasting process needed revising when most years a deficit was forecast, but then resulted in a surplus.

• Wednesday, October 19th 2016 - 21:03 UTC

  Sulivan Shipping opens Falklands' 2016/17 cruise season on Saturday with M/V Sea Spirit

  

  Approximately 63,000 cruise ship passengers arrivals are expected in the Falkland Islands this season which is slightly up on the previous season when just over 56,000 passengers were received from 105 ship visits. Staff at Sulivan Shipping are looking forward to the start of the 2016-2017 tourism season, with the arrival of the first cruise ship passengers on next Saturday’s flight, to board the M/V Sea Spirit.