Latin America

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 04:24 UTC

  Royal Dutch Shell buys BG Group for £47 Billion. Becomes main foreign oil producer in Brazil

  

  Oil and gas company Shell has agreed to buy British rival BG Group for the equivalent of 70 billion dollars, making Europe's largest oil company the pre-eminent player in global natural gas and adding world-class fields in Brazil. The deal may signal a new wave of mega-mergers as the energy industry tries to adapt to lower prices.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 03:28 UTC

  Brazilian ruling coalition members sign letter pledging to support austerity package

  

  Brazilian congressional leaders within President Dilma Rousseff's coalition signed a joint letter on Wednesday pledging to support her austerity package, an unexpected sign that the ties with her unruly coalition are improving. The deal was brokered by Vice President Michel Temer on his first day as the official go-between tasked with mending Rousseff's tense relations with coalition lawmakers.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 02:45 UTC

  With the end of commodities prices 'super-cycle', UN panel lowers Latin American growth forecast to 1%

  

  The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has revised downward its economic growth projection for the region in 2015, forecasting a 1.0% increase in the regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the United Nations organization said today in a press release.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 01:35 UTC

  Brazil inflation soars as electricity rates go up 22% in March and 60.42% in the last 12 months

  

  Consumer prices in Brazil picked up in March, putting the 12-month rate at the highest level in more than eleven years, highlighting one of the main challenges facing Latin America's largest economy in the year ahead. The rolling 12-month IPCA was up 8.13% through March, up from 7.70% in February, remaining well above the central bank's 6.5% ceiling. In the first quarter of the year, prices have risen 3.83%, while the 12-month figure marked the highest level since December 2003, when it reached 9.30%.

• Thursday, April 9th 2015 - 00:54 UTC

  Pope Francis will meet President Cristina Fernández for the fifth time, next June

  

  Pope Francis and Argentine president Cristina Fernández will meet for the fifth time at the Vatican in June, according to government sources. The head of state will visit the pontiff between June 7 and 9, two months before the PASO primaries and ahead of national elections that are to be held in October. It will be their fifth meeting since Francis was elected and the first one under the administration of Eduardo Valdés, the Argentine Ambassador to the Vatican, appointed in December.

• Wednesday, April 8th 2015 - 18:26 UTC

  Santos port soy exports expected to resume at slow pace after six-day fire

  

  Brazil’s soy exports will likely slow because a six-day fire at a nearby fuel-storage facility has restricted access to Brazil’s largest port, Santos, a port official and the soy industry association Abiove said. Authorities have agreed to restrict truck access to some terminals at the port at least through Wednesday while flames are extinguished.

• Wednesday, April 8th 2015 - 17:40 UTC

  Obama/Castro in Panama: 'grip and grin” photo or historic head-to-head sit down?

  

  President Barack Obama will attend a Summit of the Americas in Panama this week, a gathering that could see the first substantive meeting between US and Cuban leaders in half a century.

• Wednesday, April 8th 2015 - 17:11 UTC

  Bachelet denies any idea of stepping down, because of her family's corruption scandal

  

  “No way, I've never thought of resigning or stepping down” said emphatically Chilean president Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday, following a barrage of media rumors which echoed in the social networks during Holy Week, which in South America in a long weekend holiday.

• Wednesday, April 8th 2015 - 14:44 UTC

  Argentina's few friends in the world; China and Russia, Cristina Fernandez foreign policy priorities

  

  Argentina's foreign policy, under president Cristina Fernández, has new priorities, China and Russia, according to columnist Joaquin Morales Solá, one of the outstanding political analysts of Argentina. This means a radical change from democratic Argentina (since 1983) when the interests of the country were targeted in Latin America, particularly Brazil, Europe and the US, although the importance of the short list varied according to the different elected presidents.

• Monday, April 6th 2015 - 16:43 UTC

  Mexican oil production drops following deadly fire on offshore rig

  

  Mexico's oil production dropped following a deadly fire at an offshore platform, while authorities are still searching for three missing workers, state-run energy firm Pemex said.