Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said a rising tide of opposition to international trade and integration threatens global growth. Global trade this year will grow at the slowest pace since 2007, according to the World Trade Organization.
The US economy created 156,000 jobs in September, official figures show, slightly fewer than expected. However, August figure was revised higher to 167,000 from 151,000. Both figures are lower than 180,000 average for this year. The unemployment rate edged up to 5% from 4.9%, although that was due to more people looking for work.
The World Trade Organization confirmed on appeal on Thursday its ruling partially in favor of Argentina in its dispute with the European Union over duties the bloc imposes on imported biodiesel.
A Congressional committee in Brazil approved on Thursday a constitutional amendment that would limit public spending to the rate of inflation for 20 years, handing President Michel Temer an initial victory in his plan to plug a widening deficit, which if continued at the current rate could lead to fiscal collapse and public accounts insolvency, a repeat of the Greek tragedy.
The latest IMF World Economic Outlook report anticipates that Argentina’s economic contraction will amount to 1.8% this year, fiercer than the IMF’s last forecast of a 1% decline. Inflation, meanwhile, will hover at around 40%, above government estimates, the Fund said.
International Monetary Fund said that the economy of Latin America and the Caribbean will shrink 0.6% this year, compared with its earlier projection of a 0.5% contraction. The prediction is part of the latest edition of the IMF's World Economic Outlook, which points out that while major regional economies such as Brazil and Venezuela are suffering, most other countries in the area continue to expand.
Brazil’s industrial output posted its biggest monthly drop in over four years in August, damping optimism about the country’s prospects for recovering from its worst recession in generations. Industrial production declined 3.8% in August from July in seasonally adjusted terms, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE, said on Tuesday.
Spain's Fisheries Secretary General Andrés Hermida opened on Monday the World Congress on Cephalopods organized by FAO and the Conxemar in Vigo underlining the importance of this large and heterogeneous group of species, --octopus, cuttlefish, squid--, for the fisheries sector and as raw material for the processing industry.
The president of Argentina's Chamber of Jiggers Fishing Vessels Ship-owners, Juan Redini, gave some alarming figures on squid catches in the South Atlantic during a presentation at Monday's cephalopod conference held in Vigo, Spain sponsored by FAO and the Conxemar frozen seafood exhibition.
The Chinese currency Yuan entered a new phase in its journey to become more important to the world economy: starting on Saturday the Yuan is officially a member of the International Monetary Fund’s basket of global reserve currencies. Together, this group of currencies, known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR), forms a kind of pseudo-currency—used only by the IMF—to supplement countries’ official reserves.