Economy

• Tuesday, January 2nd 2024 - 10:00 UTC

  Low food prices and high interest rates behind Brazil's waning inflation

  

  After Brazil's statistics bureau IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) released the inflation for 2023 in the South American country (4.72%), Agencia Brasil delved into the possible reasons behind this achievement and determined that low food prices and high interest rates played a significant role.

• Sunday, December 31st 2023 - 23:24 UTC

  Argentina sends note rejecting BRICS entry

  

  The Argentine Government of President Javier Milei this week sent a note announcing that the South American country would not be joining the BRICS group on Jan. 1 as agreed upon with the previous administration of Alberto Fernández.

• Saturday, December 30th 2023 - 11:33 UTC

  Argentina: Beneficiaries of social aid found not to be in need

  

  Argentina's Human Capital Ministry on Friday ordered the suppression of 4,588 social assistance plans whose beneficiaries were found to have incurred expenses incompatible with such assistance, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

• Saturday, December 30th 2023 - 09:00 UTC

  Chilean gov't extends agricultural emergency

  

  Chile's Government Friday announced it was extending the agricultural emergency stemming from a water deficit due to poor rains, it was reported in Santiago. With this measure, authorities may keep up the aid to producers from Atacama to Magallanes until Sept. 30, 2024.

• Friday, December 29th 2023 - 10:55 UTC

  Paraguay's BCP meets inflation target for 2023

  

  Paraguay's Central Bank (BCP) confirmed Thursday in Asunción that after 2 years of overshooting the target, inflation in 2023 resulted according to plan. After the Consumer Price Index (CPI) exceeded 6% in 2021 and 2022, it ended at 3.7% in 2023. The BCP had set a 4% cap for the current exercise and could thus herald hopeful expectations for the year ahead.

• Thursday, December 28th 2023 - 09:04 UTC

  Chile's state-owned Codelco strikes deal with SQP for lithium extraction

  

  Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font Wednesday celebrated a new agreement between the state-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco) and Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM) to create a public-private partnership to exploit the country's lithium, with the state as the main shareholder, it was reported in Santiago.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2023 - 10:00 UTC

  Maduro touts Venezuela's economic recovery

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro insisted Tuesday that his country is continuing its economic recovery despite sanctions and other obstacles. He spoke of a “war economy” that has led Venezuela to diversify its activities and achieve 100% national production

• Wednesday, December 27th 2023 - 08:51 UTC

  English charity claims homelessness in rural areas has climbed 40% in past five years

  

  British Countryside Charity, formerly Council for the Protection of Rural England, CPRE, claims that homelessness in rural England has increased 40% over the past five years, and illustrates with figures, 17,212 in 2018 o 24,143 this year.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2023 - 07:38 UTC

  Fears of 'deforestation rush' in tropical rain forest if Brazilian congress passes bill to pave Amazon highway

  

  The lower house of Brazil's Congress passed a bill that allows the paving of highway BR319, which crosses the heart of the Amazon basin and which scientists and environmentalists claim threatens the future of the world's largest tropical rainforest. The bill still has to be approved by the Senate.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2023 - 10:55 UTC

  Impending job losses to deepen Argentina's crisis in the short run

  

  The administration of President Javier Milei is planning not to renew the contracts of some 7,000 state workers, which would add to the hardships many Argentine families are going through amid deep reforms to recover from the country's current crisis, it was reported in Buenos Aires.