Economy

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 10:01 UTC

  Brazil and Argentina agree to open Mercosur to the world and expand trade horizons

  

  Brazil and Argentina foreign ministers agreed on Thursday in Brasilia that Mercosur must open to the world and expand its trade horizons, but it will have to be done without Venezuela which has been currently “ceased” from the block. Jose Serra and Susana Malcorra coincided that Mercosur must speed the trade agreement with the European Union taking advantage of the fact US elected-president Donald Trump has pledged to limit such treaties.

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 09:47 UTC

  UK and Brazil underline significance of bilateral cooperation and initiatives in strategic areas

  

  British Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, and the Brazilian Minister for Industry, Foreign Trade and Services, Marcos Pereira, emphasized the importance of current bilateral cooperation and agreed initiatives on strategic areas to support mutual economic development, during the 9th UK-Brazil Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting held in Brasília this week.

• Thursday, December 8th 2016 - 19:01 UTC

  Russia sells 19.5% of Rosneft - ‘biggest privatization deal of 2016,’ says Putin

  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin labeled the sale of 19.5% of state-owned oil giant Rosneft's shares to the natural resource trader Glencore International and a Qatari sovereign wealth fund for over $11 billion was “the biggest sale and acquisition in the world’s oil and gas sector in 2016,” the official Kremlin website reported Wednesday.

• Wednesday, December 7th 2016 - 17:34 UTC

  Uruguay's unemployment drops to 7.1% in October

  

  Unemployment in Uruguay in October fell to 7.1% and marked the lowest monthly record of the year, according to data published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In September this index was at 8.4% and a year ago, in October 2015, at 8.5%.

• Wednesday, December 7th 2016 - 12:16 UTC

  Japanese tech firm meets Trump and pledges to invest US$ 50bn in the US

  

  Shares of Japanese technology firm Softbank have soared to their highest level in more than one year in Tokyo trade, jumping 5% at the open. That is on news Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said he will invest US$50bn in US businesses. But details are lacking on where the money will go and how it will benefit American businesses.

• Wednesday, December 7th 2016 - 11:57 UTC

  Supreme Court debates if PM May can use a regal prerogative to implement Brexit

  

  Four day debate Five months after United Kingdom's referendum to abandon the European Union, the question of who actually gets to pull the trigger on Brexit remains a muddle. Prime Minister Theresa May says she does. A high-level British court argued otherwise last month, ruling that Parliament must have a say. Now it’s up to the U.K. Supreme Court, which this week began hearing arguments in a case that could complicate May’s plan to set in motion Britain’s exit by the end of March.

• Tuesday, December 6th 2016 - 11:28 UTC

  LATAM Airlines to launch its longest nonstop flight ever between Santiago and Melbourne

  

  LATAM Airlines Group today announced it will operate a new, non-stop service between Santiago and Melbourne, Australia, from 5 October 2017. The westbound Santiago-Melbourne leg – measuring more than 11,000 km in distance with a flight time of approximately 15 hours – will become the longest non-stop flight in LATAM´s history.

• Tuesday, December 6th 2016 - 09:15 UTC

  Renzi told to remain until budget law is passed; calls for quick elections in Italy

  

  Calls mounted on Monday from populist and other opposition leaders for quick elections in Italy, seeking to capitalize on Premier Matteo Renzi's humiliating defeat in a referendum on government-championed reforms. But President Sergio Mattarella told Renzi to stay in office a bit longer until a critical budget law is passed. Some officials say Parliament could pass that law as soon as the end of the week.

• Tuesday, December 6th 2016 - 09:09 UTC

  Chilean economy contracts for the first time in seven years; minister blames “temporary factors”

  

  Chile's economy contracted for the first time in seven years in annual terms, as manufacturing and mining activity fell, potentially paving the way for the central bank to cut interest rates to spur growth. Economic activity fell 0.4% in October from the year-earlier month, the first annual contraction since October 2009, central bank data showed on Monday.

• Tuesday, December 6th 2016 - 08:09 UTC

  South Georgia coin to celebrate centenary of Endurance Expedition

  

  The government and treasury of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands issued a new Crown coin that pays tribute to and celebrates the centenary anniversary of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, also known as the Endurance Expedition. The expedition was named after its ship and is considered by some to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.