If Things Are Ever To Improve, Chile Must Follow New Zealand’s Example -
By Eugenio Tironi
Chilean Member of Parliament Isabel Allende said she will ask the Brazilian government to declassify documents that could shed light on Brazil’s possible involvement in the 1973 coup that led to the ouster and death of her father, elected socialist President Salvador Allende.
Brazil has become Chile’s third largest trading partner, displacing Japan, according to recently released government trade figures. Total July trade between Chile and Brazil was US$547 million, compared to the US$446 million in trade between Chile and Japan during July.
Venezuela's GDP contracted 2.4% in the second quarter of 2009 from the same period a year earlier, the central bank reported Thursday. In the first half of the year, the economy has contracted 1% against the same period a year earlier.
Mexico's economy plunged 10.3% in the second quarter its deepest contraction on record as shrinking exports forced factories to slash production and cut jobs and the tourism industry was knocked out by the A/H1N1 virus flu.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US-Colombia defence cooperation agreement would not create US bases in Colombia or significantly increase US military presence in the region.
Economics Nobel Prize Paul Krugman warned Wednesday that global real recovery will take time and that he’d be surprised to see within that scenario an improvement in the labour market. However he was upbeat about Latinamerica which he anticipated will recover faster that developed countries, although behind Asia.
Oslo, Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and New York are considered the world's most expensive cities based on a standardized basket of 122 goods and services from the UBS “Prices and Earnings” survey.
Chile’s economy shrank by 4.5% in the second quarter of this year, faring just slightly worse than the 4.4% GDP drop anticipated by economists, the Central Bank reported this week.
Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru are in the process of economic recovery, while Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela are in a recessive phase according to a report released Wednesday and jointly drafted by Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation and the University of Munich.