Economy

• Wednesday, February 10th 2016 - 07:16 UTC

  US Treasury's strong support message for Argentina's litigation with holdout funds

  

  The United States gave another sign of support for Argentina’s economic policies as US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew spoke on the phone with Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, striking an optimistic tone regarding the settlement offer made to the holdout funds in New York.

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 07:57 UTC

  Pollack statement: “pleased to report that enormous progress has been made”

  

  Daniel A. Pollack, Special Master presiding over settlement negotiations between the Republic of Argentina and its “holdout” Bondholders issued the following statement today (Friday, Jan 5):

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 07:37 UTC

  US unemployment drops to 4.9% in January, but hiring is slowing down

  

  The latest report from the United States Labor Department for January showed job gains slowed more than expected as the boost to hiring from unseasonably mild weather faded last month. However unemployment dropped to 4.9% of the workforce, the lowest in almost eight years.

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 07:00 UTC

  Argentina close to a full agreement with holdouts: US$ 6.5bn offer to end the litigation

  

  Argentina offered a $6.5 billion cash payment to creditors suing the country over defaulted bonds on Friday, seeking to end an exhausting 14-year legal battle, “the sovereign debt trial of the century”, that transformed the country into a financial markets pariah. Two out of six leading bondholders have already accepted the offer, the U.S. court-appointed mediator said, hailing the proposal by Argentina's new, business-friendly government as an “historic breakthrough”.

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 06:22 UTC

  Falklands' population in 'constrictive' trend, says Argentine team on the field

  

  The Falklands' population composition can be described as 'constrictive' since there is a tendency to ageing in the population pyramid, in other words there are more elderly people than children. Comments belong to a member of an Argentine team of geography and migration experts from a university in Santa Fe province (Universidad Nacional del Litoral, UNL), who have been granted scholarships to collect such data from the Islands, based on a project the team presented.

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 05:33 UTC

  Africa's decisive 54 votes pledged to Sheikh Salam's bid for FIFA presidency

  

  The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is backing Sheikh Salman in the Bahraini royal’s bid to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA president. Africa’s 54 members represent a large portion of the total of 209 FIFA voters who are eligible to cast a ballot. Not surprisingly, it’s believed that the candidate who gets the support of Africa will be a big favorite.

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 05:31 UTC

  Brazil's inflation at 12-year high in January driven by food and transportation prices

  

  Brazil's inflation rate rose to a 12-year high, officials said on Friday, as Latin America's largest economy continues to struggle through a protracted recession. Driven by rising food prices, the annual inflation rate hit 10.71%, the highest since November 2003 and well beyond the central bank's target ceiling of 6.5%, said national statistics institute IBGE.

• Friday, February 5th 2016 - 08:31 UTC

  World cereal stocks are set to end 2016 seasons at 642 million tons, higher than they began.

  

  Weather patterns associated with El Niño are sending mixed signals about the early prospects for cereal crops in 2016, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, according to FAO's Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, released on Thursday.

• Friday, February 5th 2016 - 08:27 UTC

  Recession biting in Brazil: record net savings withdrawals in January

  

  Net savings withdrawals in Brazil rose to a record high in January, with deposit outflows exceeding inflows by 12.03 billion Reais (some $3.09 billion), the Central Bank said Thursday.

• Friday, February 5th 2016 - 08:22 UTC

  Strong support message from S&Ps for Argentina's economic reforms

  

  Standard & Poor's ratings agency says that Argentina’s new administration has presented a credible plan to deal with long-standing macroeconomic imbalances, eliminated foreign-exchange restrictions, and begun negotiations with its holdout creditors. The outlook on the local currency rating is stable, reflecting the new economic policies of the Administration, but also the potential difficulties in passing and implementing those plans.