Economy

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:13 UTC

  Libor rate rigging: ex trader sentenced to 14 years in jail by London court

  

  Ex-trader Tom Hayes was sentenced to 14 years in jail by a London court on Monday after being found guilty of conspiring to rig Libor benchmark interest rates following a seven-year global investigation.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 13:44 UTC

  China's factory activity shrinks the most in two years

  

  Factory activity in the world's second largest economy, China, shrank the most in two years in July as new orders fell more than expected. The private Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) dropped to 47.8 in July from 49.4 in the previous month.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 09:40 UTC

  Brazilian currency at its weakest against the US dollar since March 2003

  

  The Brazilian currency Real lost 1% at the end of trading on Friday and begins this week at 3.42 Reais to the US dollar, the lowest in twelve years, because of the political and economic uncertainties surrounding Latin America's largest economy.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 09:29 UTC

  Argentine farmers at Palermo show opening: “please don't vote for 'populist adventures'”

  

  Argentine farmers have taken sides decisively ahead of events leading to the presidential election in October and the primaries next weekend. At the opening of the country's major Palermo agriculture show in Buenos Aires, the head of the Argentine Rural Society Luis Etchevehere called on his fellow citizens to avoid supporting “democratically elected leaders but intoxicated with authoritarianism” and “populist adventures”.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 08:08 UTC

  Unemployment in Magallanes drops slightly to 3.8% in April/June quarter

  

  Unemployment in Magallanes region, extreme south of Chile, was 3.8% in the second quarter of the year, which represents a 1.5 percentage point increase over the last twelve months despite a slight fall of 0.2 percentage point compared to the previous quarter (March/May) of 2015, according to the latest release from the INE stats office.

• Monday, August 3rd 2015 - 05:07 UTC

  Switzerland central bank announces 51bn dollars loss in six months

  

  Switzerland's central bank announced Friday it had suffered a loss of 50.1 billion francs ($51 billion, 47 billion Euros) in the first half of the year, down on the 16.1 billion francs in profit logged for the same period a year earlier.

• Saturday, August 1st 2015 - 09:55 UTC

  Brazil reports its worst half year primary deficit since 1997

  

  The Brazilian government registered a primary deficit of $470 million (1.6 billion Real) in the first half of 2015, according to figures from the National Treasury release on Thursday, O Globo newspaper reported. The deficit is the worst result since 1997. In the same period last year, the government recorded a surplus of $5 billion (17 billion real).

• Friday, July 31st 2015 - 06:41 UTC

  Maduro takes over brewers complex as Venezuela runs out of beer because of lack of barley

  

  Venezuela's largest food distributor on Thursday denounced the government occupation of a Caracas warehouse amid accusations that the company is hoarding goods. Soldiers took over the warehouse complex used by Empresas Polar late Wednesday just as Venezuela's federation of brewers announced that Polar's beer manufacturing subsidiary is shutting two of its six plants because of a lack of imported barley.

• Friday, July 31st 2015 - 06:25 UTC

  Former Fed chief says discussion is not monetary policy but government spending

  

  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warns that government spending “extremely dangerous” to the future of the US economy. Greenspan decried a rise in entitlement costs, which he contended have pressured the U.S. economy.

• Friday, July 31st 2015 - 06:08 UTC

  UK overtakes Brazil as Santander's most profitable market

  

  The UK has become Santander's most profitable market, generating just over a fifth of the bank's profits in the first half of 2015. Pre-tax profits in the UK rose £74m to £928m, while revenues were up 5%. The results eclipsed the €1bn (£700m) posted by the Spanish bank's Brazilian operation, which saw its revenues jump by 9%.