
Chile is ready to act as a 'bridge' between Mercosur and the Alliance of the Pacific so that Latin American can have a greater presence in the world state, said Chilean Deputy foreign minister Edgardo Riveros during a conference in Sao Paulo at the Lula da Silva think-tank.

Brazil's consumer confidence deteriorated sharply in August to its lowest level in more than five years, the think tank FGV said Monday. The consumer confidence index fell to 102.3 from 106.9 in July. The score was the lowest since April 2009, when it was 99.7. In July, the index had risen strongly from April's 103.8.

Premier Oil has updated progress on the Sea Lion project, the first field development offshore the Falkland Islands. Latest subsurface studies suggest recoverable reserves for the Phase 1 development at 308 MMbbl, with further upside of 60 MMbbl if next year’s well on the Chatham prospect confirms that there is no gas cap in the western side of the field.

Argentina's tax office, AFIP, Federal Public Incomes Administration president Ricardo Echegaray announced it had requested the arrest of the Donnelley board of directors for what he called playing a trick and inventing a fraudulent bankruptcy for the printing plant located in Buenos Aires province.

A group of hedge funds, including George Soros’s Quantum Partners and J. Kyle Bass’s Hayman Capital, is seeking a 226 million Euro interest payment on Argentine bonds from Bank of New York Mellon, BONY, that was blocked by a United States judge last month.

Argentina will appeal a World Trade Organization ruling against its use of import restrictions, according to a senior Argentine official. On Friday a WTO dispute panel found against Argentina in a 2012 case brought by the United States, the European Union and Japan relating to Buenos Aires licensing rules used to restrict imports.

A significant drop in the number of calls and visitors is forecasted for this coming 2014/15 cruise season in Uruguay, according to tourism officials. While in the last season Uruguay received 238 cruise calls, beginning November the number is expected to drop to 187, this apparently because of the very high costs in the ports of Buenos Aires and Brazilian terminals.

Although overall Chile is undergoing a period of economic deceleration, which the government is trying to address with lower rates and full execution of public works investments, the Magallanes region in the extreme south of the country was among those with the best performance in the second quarter having expanded a healthy 2.8%.

Two members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to raise interest rates in August, the first time in three years that policymakers have done so. The minutes of the meeting on 6-7 August show Ian McCafferty and Martin Weale voted for a 0.25% rise to 0.75%. It means the nine-member MPC voted 7-2 to hold interest rates at their historic low of 0.5%.

Brazil's National Port Authority and Waterways has approved 1.73bn dollars in port infrastructure works to be carried out by three local operators: steelmaker CSN, container terminal operator Santos Brazil and US food and agribusiness firm Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM).