Investments

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 03:03 UTC

  Mexican regulators impose highest fine ever on HSBC for money-laundering

  

  Mexican regulators have imposed a fine of 27.5 million dollars on banking giant HSBC for its failure to comply with money-laundering regulations.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 02:35 UTC

  Despite profits in Brazil, Santander bank profits halved following write-downs

  

  Profits at Spanish banking giant Santander have halved after it made more write-downs against unrecoverable loans secured against property. The bank, which is the Euro zone biggest, said first-half profits halved to 1.7bn Euros in the six months to the end of June.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 02:12 UTC

  Mujica forecasts Venezuela will rapidly become Uruguay’s third trade partner

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly defended the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur and forecasted that in a short time the country will become Uruguay’s third trade associate, behind China and Brazil.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 01:25 UTC

  Rousseff pledges to tackle the “Brazil cost” with new stimulus package

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Friday her government will unveil more measures to stimulate the economy in the next few months, including investments in ports, airports, railroads and highways.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 01:13 UTC

  Plans for a 300bn Euro rescue of Spain and writing down of Greek bonds

  

  Spain has for the first time conceded it might need a full EU/IMF bailout worth 300 billion Euros if its borrowing costs remain unsustainably high, a Euro zone official was quoted in the Madrid media.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 00:32 UTC

  US economy playing against President Obama’s re-election bid

  

  The White House cut its outlook for US growth in 2012 and 2013 on Friday, hours after data showed the economy grew at a tepid pace in the second quarter, raising concerns about a slowdown that could mar President Barack Obama's re-election chances.

• Saturday, July 28th 2012 - 00:10 UTC

  Russia investing heavily in becoming self sufficient in beef production

  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin has an ambitious plan to cut his country's 3 billion dollars annual import bill for beef. He even aspires to return Russia's beef industry to its pre-revolutionary stature.

• Wednesday, July 25th 2012 - 06:36 UTC

  Argentina is making few friends in the oil and gas industry these days

  

  Interview with Sam Logan (*) Angering Spain by seizing and nationalizing a majority of Repsol's shares in YPF and ramping up the rhetoric over the Falkland Islands as exploration deals promise to make the territory a major oil player overnight, Argentina is making few friends in the fossil fuels industry these days.

• Tuesday, July 24th 2012 - 20:57 UTC

  Chavez in a veiled threat tells Spain’s Repsol to seek agreement with Argentina

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez advised Repsol to seek a friendly agreement in its dispute with Argentina and noted that the Spanish energy company held important assets in his country.

• Tuesday, July 24th 2012 - 06:26 UTC

  Euro down to lowest in 11 years as Spain crumbles and investors flee

  

  The Euro weakened to the lowest in more than 11 years against the Yen as investors sought safer assets amid mounting concern that European leaders are failing to control the region’s debt crisis.