Economy

• Wednesday, August 5th 2015 - 07:25 UTC

  UK government begins sale of rescued RBS, but a third below the price it paid

  

  The British government has begun its sell-off of shares in part-nationalized lender Royal Bank of Scotland, raising £2.1bn, a third below the price it paid. It sold a 5.4% stake at 330p a share, a 7.6p discount on Monday's closing price.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 18:40 UTC

  US closer to lifting 40-year ban on oil and natural gas exports; bill needs Senate floor vote

  

  The United States is closer to begin exporting oil. The Senate Energy Committee passed a bill last week that would lift a decades-old ban on the export of crude oil. The 22-member panel approved the initiative to allow the US to export oil and boost state revenue-sharing for offshore oil and gas drilling by a vote of 12-10.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 09:27 UTC

  Bradesco buys HSBC operations in Brazil for 5.2bn dollars

  

  Brazil's Banco Bradesco SA agreed to buy HSBC Holdings Plc's Brazilian unit for a surprisingly high 17.6 billion reais ($5.2 billion), narrowing the gap with larger rivals while boosting its base of affluent customers in Latin America's largest economy.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:35 UTC

  Puerto Rico declared on default by Moody's after failing to make debt full payment

  

  Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank announced Monday that it was only able to make a partial payment on its Public Finance Corporation (PFC) debt service due over the weekend. In response to the non-payment of the full service, credit rating agency Moody's said it viewed the situation as a default.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:18 UTC

  Oil glut and China's poor manufacturing data reflected in global markets

  

  United States stocks fell on Monday as oil prices touched a six-month low and factory data from China raised concerns about the world's second-biggest economy. Energy stocks were the biggest losers among the main S&P sectors, recording their worst three-day decline in seven months. Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which also reported poor results on Friday, led the losses.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:13 UTC

  Libor rate rigging: ex trader sentenced to 14 years in jail by London court

  

  Ex-trader Tom Hayes was sentenced to 14 years in jail by a London court on Monday after being found guilty of conspiring to rig Libor benchmark interest rates following a seven-year global investigation.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 13:44 UTC

  China's factory activity shrinks the most in two years

  

  Factory activity in the world's second largest economy, China, shrank the most in two years in July as new orders fell more than expected. The private Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) dropped to 47.8 in July from 49.4 in the previous month.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 09:40 UTC

  Brazilian currency at its weakest against the US dollar since March 2003

  

  The Brazilian currency Real lost 1% at the end of trading on Friday and begins this week at 3.42 Reais to the US dollar, the lowest in twelve years, because of the political and economic uncertainties surrounding Latin America's largest economy.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 09:29 UTC

  Argentine farmers at Palermo show opening: “please don't vote for 'populist adventures'”

  

  Argentine farmers have taken sides decisively ahead of events leading to the presidential election in October and the primaries next weekend. At the opening of the country's major Palermo agriculture show in Buenos Aires, the head of the Argentine Rural Society Luis Etchevehere called on his fellow citizens to avoid supporting “democratically elected leaders but intoxicated with authoritarianism” and “populist adventures”.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 08:08 UTC

  Unemployment in Magallanes drops slightly to 3.8% in April/June quarter

  

  Unemployment in Magallanes region, extreme south of Chile, was 3.8% in the second quarter of the year, which represents a 1.5 percentage point increase over the last twelve months despite a slight fall of 0.2 percentage point compared to the previous quarter (March/May) of 2015, according to the latest release from the INE stats office.