Economy

• 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.

• Monday, December 5th 2016 - 21:36 UTC

  Italian “No” wave hits Euro in Japanese markets

  

  The euro tumbled on Monday in Tokyo following the results in a referendum held in Italy on Sunday to decide whether Prime Minister's Matteo Renzi's plan to reform the Constitution should be carried out. After conceding defeat, Renzi announced he would be submitting his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Monday. The referendum results raised political uncertainty at continental level.

• Monday, December 5th 2016 - 11:06 UTC

  Euro skids to a 20-month low on Rienzi's resignation; all eyes on EU Central bank

  

  The Euro skidded to a 20-month low after Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would resign following a stinging defeat on constitutional reform that could destabilize the country's shaky banking system. Renzi's defeat deals a body blow to the European Union already reeling under anti-establishment anger that led to the shock exit of UK from the club in June this year.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 09:53 UTC

  Two Chinese large-scale jiggers heading for the SW Atlantic, announces Pingtan

  

  China's Pingtan Marine has announced the launch of two new squid jiggers, bound for the southwest Atlantic and southeast Pacific oceans. The two newly-completed vessels should reach fishing grounds by late December, and sales of squid catches are then expected to begin in the first quarter of 2017.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 09:41 UTC

  Old-fashioned cigarette doomed, says world's largest tobacco company

  

  A historic lawsuit loss to Uruguay over tobacco-related cancer damages and other technological developments have Philip Morris focusing on new alternatives. “I think the time will come when we will have enough acceptance of these alternative products to begin to propose, along with the governments, a gradual elimination of conventional cigars,” the company CEO Andre Calantzopoulos announced.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 07:32 UTC

  US unemployment falls to nine-year low in November, 4.6%, but earnings slowdown

  

  United States unemployment rate fell to a nine-year low in November, adding to expectations that US interest rates will rise later this month. Figures from the Labor Department showed the US economy created 178,000 jobs in November, while the jobless rate fell to 4.6% from 4.9% in October.