
New York district judge Thomas Griesa declared on Monday Argentina in contempt of court, due to the country's actions in attempting to change debt jurisdictions as a result of the ongoing judicial conflict with holdout investors presided over by the US magistrate.

Venezuela's Bolivar currency hit a record low 100 to the U.S. dollar on the black market on Friday, making the dollar 16 times more expensive than the strongest official rate, according to a website that tracks it.

Finland's UPM, one of the largest forestry groups in the world, does not intend for the moment to build any new pulp mills in Uruguay, said Jaakko Sarantola, vice president of the cellulose division of the company, who also pointed out that Uruguay needs to improve infrastructure to facilitate logistics.

Anticipating what could be policy under a second government of President Dilma Rousseff, her Trade Minister Mauro Borges told Brazilian daily Folha do Sao Paulo that opening the country to more foreign trade would be a “disaster for Brazilian industry” and lead to the “mexicanization” of the economy, in reference to the light assembly factories known as “maquiladoras” that dominate Mexico’s non-oil exports.

Argentina’s government released some hopeful economic statistics last week with numbers showing that the economy climbed out of recession in the last quarter. But with skepticism over the numbers, combined with a free-falling peso, in light of Argentina’s debt dispute with holdout creditors, economists still have a grim outlook the Mercosur member economy.

Argentina's Economy minister Axel Kicillof lashed out at US Judge Thomas Griesa after he authorized Citibank a one-off payment of Argentine bonds' coupon next Tuesday saying he once again failed to address the heart of the issue and also in fact recognized that bonds under Argentine law do not belong to his jurisdiction.

US District Judge Thomas Griesa has enabled Citibank to process a one-off payment on US dollar-denominated bonds issued under Argentine law, during a hearing held at Manhattan federal court on Friday.

Brazil's jobless rate rose in August to its highest in six months despite stronger job creation, adding to signs that the economic recession is eroding a robust labor market. The non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 5.0 percent in August, up from 4.9% in July, statistics agency IBGE announced.

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 4.6% between April and June, faster than the previous estimate of 4.2%, according to revised figures from the US Department of Commerce. The revision was due to larger rises in exports and business investment.

Following the opening remarks by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff was the first head of state to address the General Assembly on Wednesday. She called for a “re-launching of global economy” and a “true reform” of the UN Security Council.