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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 12th 2025 - 14:15 UTC

Economy

  • Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 07:05 UTC

    Brazilian lawmakers accused of Petrobras graft fight back

    Farias told Folha de Sao Paulo that while he may have acted improperly, his actions weren’t illegal. The senator admitted taking a US$650,000 donation

    Brazil’s congressional heads denied involvement in the country’s largest graft scandal after being named among dozens of politicians for investigation. Renan Calheiros and Eduardo Cunha, the heads of the Senate and Lower House respectively, and Rio de Janeiro Senator Lindbergh Farias all rejected allegations of graft in the Petrobras kickback scheme dubbed “Carwash.”

  • Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:56 UTC

    Renewal of car quotas with Mexico reveals shortcomings of Brazilian industry

    “We need to deal with our competitiveness issues before reaching a free-trade agreement with any nation,” said Moan, head of Brazil’s auto-maker association

    Brazil and Mexico announced the renewal of vehicle quotas for four years, delaying the implementation of a free-trade agreement between the two countries. Under the new agreement, Brazil and Mexico will permit $1.56 billion of duty-free vehicle imports for the first year of the agreement. That amount will rise 3% each year until the agreement expires, in 2019, when they’ll return to a free-trade regime.

  • Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:46 UTC

    ECLAC estimates 28% of Latin America's population live in poverty

    It is estimated 2014 will reveal a similar 28% poverty, which given demographic growth would translate into an increase in absolute figures to 167 million people.

    Poverty affected 28% of Latin America’s population in 2014, revealing that its decline has stalled at around that level since 2012, while indigence rose to 12.0% from 11.3% during the same two-year period in an overall context of economic deceleration, according to the projections from a study released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

  • Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 03:21 UTC

    Argentina's top tax official attends HSBC hearings at UK Parliament

    AFIP chief Ricardo Echegaray and the Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro outside Parliament

    Argentina wants HSBC Holdings Plc to repatriate 3.5 billion dollars the bank's Argentine branch moved offshore to help clients evade taxes and move capital abroad, the country's tax chief Ricardo Echegaray said on Monday during a hearing which took place at the House of Commons in London, where top executives of HSBC were present.

  • Monday, March 9th 2015 - 11:45 UTC

    February's FAO Food Price Index at is lowest value since early 2010

    Prices of wheat, coarse grains and rice were all lower, but the decline was most pronounced for wheat, reflecting improvement in wheat production prospects

    The FAO Food Price Index averaged 179. 4 points in February 2015, down 1.8 points (1.0 percent) from its January value and 29 points (14.0 percent) below its level in February 2014. Prices of cereals, meat and, especially, sugar, dipped last month, while they remained steady in the case of oils and rebounded sharply in the case of dairy products. The index has been on a declining path since April 2014 and has now reached its lowest value since July 2010.

  • Saturday, March 7th 2015 - 08:29 UTC

    US economy keeps creating jobs, while unemployment drops to 5.5%

    In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls rose by 3 cents to $24.78, with earnings up by 2% over the year.

    US economy added 295,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7%, according to Labor Department figures. It was the 12th month running that the economy added more than 200,000 jobs, the longest such run since 1994.

  • Saturday, March 7th 2015 - 07:59 UTC

    Argentina's beef production tepid recovery forecasted to remain flat in 2015

    “Export limitations and export taxes encourage producers to finish light heifers and steers, weighing approximately 300 kilos live weight,” said USDA bureau.

    Argentina's revival as a major force in beef has been slowed by a dent to calving rates from poor weather, besides by a reluctance by producers to maximize animal weights, in the face of export restrictions.

  • Saturday, March 7th 2015 - 07:37 UTC

    February inflation in Brazil at 7.7% is at its highest level since May 2005

    The figures highlighted the spiraling cost of education, transport and housing.

    Inflation jumped in Brazil on February with price increases hitting an annual rate of 7.7%, the highest in nearly nine years, officials said on Friday. The national statistics institute IBGE said prices rose 1.22% in February, pushing inflation well above the government's target ceiling of 6.5%.

  • Friday, March 6th 2015 - 22:08 UTC

    Falklands oil drilling campaign takes off with spudding on the Zebedee prospect

    Drilling, coring and logging operations on the Zebedee well are expected to take 30 days. Cost of each well drilled by Eirik Raude rig is estimated in 50m dollars

    Premier Oil spudded its first 2015 Falklands drilling campaign well, 14/15-5, using the Eirik Raude semisubmersible drilling rig on the Zebedee prospect on 6 March. The well, on license PL004b, will test a total of seven stacked fan bodies with varying geological chances of success (GCoS) of 9-52%.

  • Friday, March 6th 2015 - 18:25 UTC

    ECB stimuli bond-purchase to begin next Monday, announces Dragui

    “We will on 9 March 2015 start purchasing euro-dominated public sector securities in the secondary market”, Draghi announced in Nicosia.

    Following a meeting of the European Central Bank's rate-setting Governing Council in Cyprus on Thursday, ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank would start buying sovereign bonds from Euro zone countries on Monday next week.