A strong El Niño is likely to increase prices of staple foods such as rice, coffee, sugar and cocoa, say scientists. Forecasters agree that the El Niño effect, which can drive droughts and flooding, is under way in the tropical Pacific, but they say it is too early to say how severe it will be.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vowed to deepen economic ties with Colombia after arriving to Bogotá on Thursday, as part of his four-nation South American tour aimed at boosting trade and investment. Li is the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Colombia since the two nations established diplomatic ties 35 years ago and his visit was hailed as historic by President Juan Manuel Santos.
A quarter of children below the age of four in Argentina is poor and almost five in ten babies less than six months have malnutrition problems according to the Center for Implementation of Equity and Growth Public Policies, CIPPEC. The data was provided in the CIPPEC website dedicated to make first infancy a priority through a childcare integral policy.
Alastair Marsh, current CFO at the Lloyd’s Register Group Ltd. (LR), has been appointed as the successor to CEO Richard Sadler who has decided to step down at the end of 2015. Sadler will pass the CEO role to Marsh on October 1, 2015 and commence a formal handover period until the end of December 2015.
Economic activity in Brazil tumbled in the first quarter and unemployment climbed to a near four-year high, adding to signals that a looming recession could worsen as President Dilma Rousseff reins in public spending.
Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez said it was “urgent and necessary” to redesign Mercosur so as to give its members greater 'trade flexibility'. Vazquez made the statements following Thursday meeting with his peer Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia and underlined “it would be naive to admit that Mercosur as it stands currently, is satisfactory”.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) encouraged Brazil on Thursday to pursue fiscal discipline, saying it was needed to protect social programs benefitting the poorest members of society. IMF chief Christine Lagarde made the link during a visit to Complexo do Alemao, one of Rio's largest and most dangerous slums and an example of the challenges the country faces as it struggles with low growth and high inflation
Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez will be meeting his peer, Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia this Thursday to address a dense bilateral agenda, and more specifically the workings and future of Mercosur, in search for a more flexible group, open to agreements with third parties.
Five of the world's largest banks are to pay fines totaling $5.7bn for charges including manipulating the foreign exchange market. Four of the banks - JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup and RBS - have agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges, while the fifth, UBS from Switzerland will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates.
President Cristina Fernández led on Wednesday a rally in the Buenos Aires City central railway station of Retiro where she praised the renovation of Argentina's railway system in an event that was part of the official celebrations marking a new anniversary of the May Revolution, which in 1810 was the beginning of the country's road to independence.