Latin America

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 22:14 UTC

  Cruise on world tour calls in Uruguay; season opens officially November

  

  Even when Uruguay's official cruise season is scheduled for November this last Sunday Montevideo received “Costa Neo Romantica” a vessel on a world tour. She was expected to call at the Atlantic seaside resort of Punta del Este, but adverse weather conditions cancelled the visit.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 21:41 UTC

  Brazil auctions 35-year production rights to giant offshore Libra oil area

  

  Brazil sold production rights to develop the giant offshore Libra oil area to a consortium led by Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA in an auction with a single bid on Monday. The auction in Rio do Janeiro took place amid strict security measures with hundreds of police forces clashing with protestors.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 21:30 UTC

  Argentine Central bank losing reserves at a rate of 47.5 million dollars per day

  

  Argentina's central bank is currently losing international reserves at an average of 47,5 million dollars per day or 8 million per hour, according to the latest figures on the bank's accounts which is increasingly used by the government of President Cristina Fernandez to honor foreign debt and finance the budget.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 07:39 UTC

  Brazil's development bank to target infrastructure and less on corporations

  

  Brazil will inject less money next year into the country's development bank BNDES, (National economic and social development bank), its leading source of long-term corporate loans, to focus more on infrastructure financing as concerns mount over public debt.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 07:13 UTC

  Uruguay among the countries in Latam with the highest power costs

  

  Uruguay is among the Latin-American and Caribbean countries with the highest power costs according to a paper from the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, Bloomberg and New Energy Finance. This is extensive both for residential consumers and for manufacturing and large consumers.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 07:01 UTC

  Too many summits: Ibero-American countries decide to meet every other year

  

  In a poorly attended Ibero-American summit held during two days in Panama, the heads of state and government from the Americas, plus Spain and Portugal, decided that instead of holding annual meetings they would get together every other year, starting after the 2014 summit in Veracruz, Mexico.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 06:21 UTC

  Venezuela clamps down on 'currency tourism' with random checks at airports

  

  The 'dollar-scarce' Venezuelan government is trying to clamp down on what it calls “currency tourism” with random checks of passengers leaving the country. The officials at the country's main airports are not guards or police but bureaucrats at state currency board Cadivi investigating whether travelers' documents match their requests for hard-to-get dollars.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 06:16 UTC

  Argentine economy 12 month expansion in August was 4%

  

  Argentine economic activity grew 4% in August from the same month last year, the government said on Friday, growth that far exceeded market expectations.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 06:03 UTC

  Inspirator of Venezuelan Socialism anticipates Maduro won't make it to April 2014

  

  The man credited with pioneering the idea of 21st Century socialism, which was championed and put into application in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez, recently made a damning condemnation of current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 05:30 UTC

  Brazil confident Paraguay will be returning to Mercosur before the end of the year

  

  Brazil trusts Paraguay will fully return to Mercosur before the end of the year, said Brazil's Executive foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia in a Sunday edition interview with the influential Folha de Sao Paulo.