Economy

• Saturday, March 28th 2015 - 11:15 UTC

  Brazil just managed to skim recession last year with 0.1% growth but is expected to shrink in 2015

  

  Brazil's economy grew just 0.1% last year, barely keeping the country out of a recession, the government's statistics bureau said on Friday. It was the worst result since 2009 and bad news for President Dilma Rousseff, whose popularity has plummeted along with Brazil's economic performance.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 08:57 UTC

  Uruguay's economy expanded 3.5% in 2014, completing over a decade of sustained growth

  

  Uruguay's GDP expanded a strong 3.5% during 2014 over the previous year, with positive activity in most sectors of the Mercosur member economy, according to the latest report from the Central bank. The result was in line with government officials expectations of 3% growth last year.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 08:46 UTC

  European clearing houses close trading bridges on Argentine law bonds

  

  Clearing houses Euroclear and Clearstream have closed trading bridges on some 9.4 billion of Argentine bonds issued under the country's law. The action will prevent Euroclear customers from settling their trades with Clearstream clients and vice versa, but will not affect trading between customers belonging to the same clearing company, the same source said.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 08:36 UTC

  Another major corruption scandal hits Brazil, this time fraud at the tax office

  

  Brazilian authorities on Thursday said they uncovered a tax fraud scheme at the Finance Ministry's tax appeals board that may have cost taxpayers up to 19 billion Reais (5.96 billion dollars).

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 08:31 UTC

  Brazilian industry confident depreciation of the currency will help spur exports

  

  Brazil's private sector believes the depreciation of the Real against the dollar can help spur a manufacturing sector recovery even though the business climate has been affected by the Petrobras scandal, an official with the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo, Fiesp, said.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 08:23 UTC

  Brazil's central bank forecasts economy will contract 0.5% and inflation climb to 7.9%

  

  Brazil's economy will contract 0.5% in 2015 and inflation will climb to 7.9%, ending the year far outside the tolerance range, the Central Bank admitted on Thursday in its latest quarterly inflation report.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 08:07 UTC

  Petrobras engineering firm contractor files for bankruptcy

  

  Brazilian engineering firm Galvao Engenharia said on Wednesday it filed for bankruptcy protection, as state-run oil company Petrobras cut off payments due to a broad corruption scandal in which it had been implicated.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 07:52 UTC

  International summit on oil and gas potential in Uruguay next June

  

  Uruguay's oil and gas Government owned company, ANCAP, will join senior level delegation from international oil and gas operators on 11-12 June 2015 in Montevideo to analyze the potential of a region that has experienced significant advances since 2009.

• Thursday, March 26th 2015 - 14:41 UTC

  Falklands' main import trading partner is the UK with 87% of all goods

  

  The United Kingdom is the main import trading partner of the Falkland Islands with 87% of all imported goods coming from the UK in 2012 (Customs and Immigration 2013) with the rest imported mostly from Chile and Uruguay, according to the latest report on the Falklands' “State of the Economy”.

• Thursday, March 26th 2015 - 09:20 UTC

  Argentina considers Citigroup deal with US Judge Griesa could have violated local law

  

  Argentina's Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said on Wednesday a deal between Citigroup Inc and U.S. judge Thomas Griesa allowing the banking giant to process two Argentine debt payments violated the country's laws.