Economy

• Wednesday, September 3rd 2014 - 05:55 UTC

  Australia scraps contested mining tax; major win for Abbot's conservatives

  

  Australia on Tuesday agreed to scrap a contested resources profits tax after the government struck a surprise deal with crossbench senators, including mining tycoon Clive Palmer. The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) was introduced by the previous Labor administration in 2012, with a levy on annual profits above 70 million dollars on iron ore and coal at a rate of 30%.

• Wednesday, September 3rd 2014 - 05:50 UTC

  Barclays moves out of Spain; sells operations to CaixaBank for 800 million Euros

  

  Spain’s third-biggest lender, CaixaBank SA agreed to buy Barclays Plc banking operations in the country for about 800 million Euros (1.1 billion) in cash to expand its business as economic growth picks up. The sale includes consumer, wealth and investment management and corporate banking businesses, Barcelona-based CaixaBank said in a statement.

• Wednesday, September 3rd 2014 - 05:36 UTC

  Spain's unemployment remains stubbornly high: 4.5 million in August

  

  A total of 8,070 people joined Spain's jobless queues in August, the first rise in unemployment after six months of improvement, official figures released on Tuesday show. The rise means there were 4,427,930 Spaniards registered as looking for work at the country's unemployment offices at the end of August, Spain's employment ministry figures show.

• Wednesday, September 3rd 2014 - 05:26 UTC

  UK and Germany main beneficiaries of Spain's brain drain

  

  Spain is among the European countries hardest hit by the so-called 'brain drain' effect with thousands of professionals including nurses and teachers taking steps to leave the country in recent years, new figures from the European Union show.

• Tuesday, September 2nd 2014 - 22:45 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil bilateral trade drops to 2010 level. Auto industry hardest hit

  

  Bilateral trade between Mercosur leading partners Argentina and Brazil plummeted 27.6% in August and 22% in the last twelve months, according to Buenos Aires consultants, Abeceb. Recession in Brazil plus strict Argentine trade restrictions and slower domestic demand has contributed to the results.

• Tuesday, September 2nd 2014 - 08:40 UTC

  Bachelet announces stimuli program for the foundering Chilean economy

  

  President Michelle Bachelet presented on Monday a 500 million dollars emergency plan to try and rejuvenate Chile's slowing economy via investment promotion. She added that half of the anticipated funding will come from adjustments to the budget while the rest will come from greater structural income from a tax reform that Congress is expected to approve soon

• Tuesday, September 2nd 2014 - 08:36 UTC

  Dragui and Hollande agree to spur demand and head off the risk of deflation

  

  French President Francois Hollande and Mario Draghi the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) have agreed that European demand must be lifted to head off a risk of deflation, French officials said.

• Monday, September 1st 2014 - 16:49 UTC

  China's manufacturing misses expectations in August; stimulus considered

  

  China's manufacturing activity missed expectations in August, indicating that the country's economy may be losing momentum and require more stimulus. The official purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 51.1 for the first time in seven months from 51.7 in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

• Monday, September 1st 2014 - 16:44 UTC

  EU support for dairy farmers to alleviate Russian restrictions on imports

  

  The European Commission opened Private Storage Aid for butter, Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP) and certain cheeses in order to alleviate the impact of Russian restrictions on imports of EU dairy products and to limit the negative effects on the internal market.

• Monday, September 1st 2014 - 13:46 UTC

  Timerman presents plan to regulate sovereign debts before the UN on Tuesday

  

  Foreign Minister Hector Timerman referred to Argentina’s plan to regulate international debt restructurings, to be presented on Tuesday before the UN’s General Assembly, and stressed the importance of the project saying that “the legal loophole is huge” and that it affects “most of the countries in the world.”