Economy

• 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.

• Friday, February 5th 2016 - 07:54 UTC

  Swiss Syngenta accepts takeover proposal by China Chemical: US$ 43bn cash

  

  Government-owned agrochemical firm China National Chemical announced this week an all-cash proposal to buy Swiss rival Syngenta for $43 billion in a deal expected to improve China's food production.

• Thursday, February 4th 2016 - 08:17 UTC

  Magallanes region in south Chile could hold a treasure of unconventional tight gas

  

  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Glauconitica zone of Chile's southernmost Magallanes region holds nearly 8.3 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable, unconventional tight gas, or nearly double Chile's production of that fossil fuel over the past 70 years.

• Thursday, February 4th 2016 - 07:45 UTC

  Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal signed by 12 member nations in New Zealand

  

  The Trans Pacific Partnership, one of the biggest multinational trade deals ever, has been signed by ministers from its 12 member nations in New Zealand. The ceremony in Auckland brings the huge trade pact, which has been five years in the making, another step towards to becoming a reality. But the TPP continues to face opposition.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2016 - 07:23 UTC

  Argentina agrees to pay Italian bond holders including “a reasonable interest”

  

  Argentina announced Tuesday that it reached a $900 million preliminary accord to settle its pending debt with 50,000 Italian holders of defaulted Argentine government bonds. Finance minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said that the agreement with Italian bondholders includes the Argentine government's acknowledgement of the debt “and reasonable interest”.