Latin America

• Friday, October 5th 2012 - 19:48 UTC

  Paraguay ‘deplores’ Uruguay’s speech before the UN General Assembly

  

  Paraguay deplored statements from Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro who claimed before the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the landlocked country had interrupted ‘democratic order’ when it removed Fernando Lugo from the Executive.

• Thursday, October 4th 2012 - 19:40 UTC

  Latam expected to expand 3% more in line with global trends, says World Bank

  

  Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) will be growing at 3%, more in line with global trends but even with GDP beginning to slow, the region’s unemployment rate stood at 6.5%, approaching historic lows and well below its peak of 11% a decade ago, according to the latest semi-annual report “The Labour Market Story Behind Latin America’s Transformation,” by the World Bank’s Office of the Chief Economist for the region.

• Thursday, October 4th 2012 - 19:23 UTC

  Latam created 35 million jobs in last decade and helped combat income inequality

  

  Labour markets played an important role the transformation and advance of the Latin American economy in the past decade as more than 35 million additional jobs were created in that period plus the fact that high informality declined in seven out of nine countries of the region.

• Thursday, October 4th 2012 - 10:32 UTC

  Belgium provides financial support for demining programs in Ecuador and Peru

  

  Belgium signed on Wednesday an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) to provide financial support for the program “Landmine Victim Assistance in Ecuador and Peru,” carried out by the OAS.

• Thursday, October 4th 2012 - 07:18 UTC

  Fearing a collapse of their economy, Cubans overwhelmingly would vote for Chavez

  

  Many Cubans are anxious about the results of Venezuela’ presidential election next Sunday and are praying for an Hugo Chavez victory since they are fearful of another collapse of the island’s economy if the winner is opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

• Wednesday, October 3rd 2012 - 01:42 UTC

  Chile a country with a growing disappointed middle class, says Financial Times

  

  The influential business newspaper Financial Times dedicated a special edition to the Chilean economic and social situation and concludes that given the massive demonstrations against energy projects and in favour of education reform, “doing business” in the country has become difficult plus there is growing disappointment in the middle class.

• Wednesday, October 3rd 2012 - 01:29 UTC

  Chile revokes lithium concession; triggers major scandal on “strategic minerals”

  

  Chile revoked the concession awarded to Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile to exploit substantial reserves of lithium in the Andes region, acknowledging problems with the tender process.

• Tuesday, October 2nd 2012 - 22:18 UTC

  Big storm reaching Latam/Caribbean: growth estimate down to 3.2% from 3.7%

  

  A weak global economy, mainly due to the difficulties faced by Europe, United States and China has affected growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2012 the original growth estimate will fall from 3.7% to 3.2%, according to the latest estimate from the UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Caribbean.

• Tuesday, October 2nd 2012 - 06:39 UTC

  Capriles pledges support for peace talks in Colombia and distance from Iran

  

  Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles pledged to help Colombia in its peace talks with rebels and distance himself from Iran should he defeat President Hugo Chávez in an increasingly tight race ahead of Sunday's election.

• Tuesday, October 2nd 2012 - 06:31 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez denies any dollar clamp: in nine months paid out 80bn dollars

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández again denied the existence of money exchange restrictions over the purchase of dollars by explaining that “Argentina has already paid 79.8 billion dollars so far this year”.