Economy

• Thursday, January 21st 2016 - 07:24 UTC

  Holdouts request postponement of Argentina's proposal to solve dispute

  

  Representatives from holdout investment funds have requested the Argentine government to postpone until the first week of February, next week's scheduled proposal to overcome the country's debt situation which remains technically in default.

• Thursday, January 21st 2016 - 07:13 UTC

  In a surprise move, Brazil's central bank leaves interest rate unchanged at 14.25%

  

  Recession-hit Brazil's central bank in a divided vote left the key interest rate untouched on Wednesday despite rising inflation, opting against an increase that could put a further brake on the world's seventh-biggest economy.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2016 - 06:47 UTC

  Bank of America anticipates strong devaluation for bankrupt Venezuela

  

  Bank of America predicted president Nicolas Maduro would merge Venezuela’s three-tier currency controls into two, replacing the strongest rate of 6.3 bolivars to the dollar with a level of 35. Greenbacks go for around 865 bolivars on the black market.

• Monday, January 18th 2016 - 10:32 UTC

  Oxfam claims the richest 1% has as much wealth as the rest of the world combined

  

  The richest 1% now has as much wealth as the rest of the world combined, according to Oxfam. It uses data from Credit Suisse from October for the report, which urges leaders meeting in Davos this week to take action on inequality. Oxfam also calculated that the richest 62 people in the world had as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population.

• Monday, January 18th 2016 - 08:36 UTC

  Argentina new bills: Evita and Malvinas out, replaced by Andean deer and condor

  

  Inflation plagued Argentina will be issuing higher denomination bills and at the same time will avoid politics and history, concentrating on images of autochthonous fauna in danger of extinction. This means that the latest bills issued, 100 and 50 Pesos, with the image of Evita Peron, and Falklands/Malvinas and the notorious Gaucho Rivero, should quickly become collection pieces.

• Monday, January 18th 2016 - 08:15 UTC

  Petrobras increased pre-salt oil production by 56% during 2015

  

  Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras said it increased its crude production last year by 4.6% relative to 2014, exceeding the target set forth in its business plan for the first time in 13 years. Oil output in 2015 amounted to an average of 2.128 million barrels per day (bpd), up 0.15% from the 2.125 million bpd forecast by the company.

• Monday, January 18th 2016 - 08:11 UTC

  Rousseff admits a government bailout of indebted Petrobras is a serious option

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff admitted that a government bailout for the country’s troubled state-controlled oil company Petrobras can’t be ruled out. The company is mired in financial troubles amid a deep decline of global oil prices and a sprawling corruption scandal involving several of its former executives and its largest suppliers.

• Monday, January 18th 2016 - 05:52 UTC

  All negotiations with holdout funds will be made public, announced Argentina

  

  Argentina announced that all the details of the negotiation with the speculative funds, taking place in New York, will be made public in order to guarantee the transparency of the process. The news from the Finance Ministry dismissed reports that the holdouts were demanding the Argentine government sign a confidentiality agreement before talks can begin.

• Saturday, January 16th 2016 - 10:58 UTC

  Venezuela in “economic emergency”: Q3 inflation 141.5% and GDP down 7.1%

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government has decreed a 60-day “economic emergency” for the recession-hit OPEC nation reeling from low oil prices and a sputtering state-led economic model. The government on Friday also published the first macroeconomic data for more than a year, showing GDP dropped in the third quarter while inflation surged.

• Saturday, January 16th 2016 - 10:54 UTC

  Unemployment in Brazil during third quarter climbs to 9%

  

  Unemployment in Brazil rose to 9% in the August-October rolling quarter, up from 8.6% during the previous three months, the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, reported Friday. The jobless rate was 6.6% in August-October 2014.