Economy

• Monday, March 30th 2015 - 10:32 UTC

  US economic growth cools in the fourth quarter and profits take a hit from strong dollar

  

  US economic growth cooled in the fourth quarter as previously reported and after-tax corporate profits took a hit from a strong dollar, which could undermine future business spending. GDP expanded at a 2.2% annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its third estimate of GDP. That was unrevised from the forecast the government published last month.

• Monday, March 30th 2015 - 07:13 UTC

  Falklands economy main contributor is fishing industry: 34% of GDP in 2012

  

  Measured by GDP, fishing is the most important industry in the Falkland Islands and in 2012 contributed 34% to GDP, according to the State of the Falklands Economy report from the FIG Policy Unit.

• Monday, March 30th 2015 - 06:58 UTC

  Falklands' oil industry advances despite the fall in oil prices, according to FT

  

  A recent piece from the Financial Times points to the fact that despite the remoteness of the Falkland Islands, the fall of international oil prices and the ongoing conflict with Argentina, this has not impeded small oil and gas companies from going ahead with exploration, and hopefully before 2020 production, in the Islands waters.

• Monday, March 30th 2015 - 06:47 UTC

  Citibank suspended in Argentina “until it revokes agreement with Griesa and holdout funds”

  

  Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said the suspension of Citibank Argentina, ordered by the National Securities Commission (CNV) financial watchdog, will stay in place until the bank revokes its agreement not to appeal US Judge Thomas Griesa’s ruling that interest payments on Argentina's restructured local law bonds could not be processed if the bank was allowed to make two one-off payments to help it exit its local custody business.

• 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.