Business is booming in Chile as the nation’s top 20 major businesses increased their revenue by 18% in 2010. The largest increase in profits came from Chile’s mining sector, where profits grew to 10.9 billion US dollars last year, up 60% since 2009.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Chile rose 9.2% during the first quarter of 2011 in relation to the same period last year, according to Tourism Secretary Jacqueline Plass. A record-breaking 1,043, 042 tourists entered Chile between January and March, at the height of the summer tourism season.
White House officials said the United States and Colombia have reached a deal on a free trade agreement. President Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos are to meet Thursday to discuss the deal.
Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman met Wednesday with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and reiterated Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas and other South Atlantic Islands this time reinforced with a formal request from the Union of South American Nations, Unasur leaders in support of Argentina’s “historic and legitimate rights”.
The increase in the Mexican IMEF manufacturing index last month suggests that the industrial sector has continued to benefit from stronger demand in the US, points out Capital Economics.
Argentina’s government is opening a new path to Tierra del Fuego that will give travellers, who once had to pass through Chile to reach the southernmost tip of the continent, the option of skipping Chile altogether.
Operations of a joint stock market linking Chile, Colombia and Peru are scheduled to begin May 30. The group, known as the Integrated Latin American Market, or Mila, said Tuesday that the decision was taken following two rounds of successful testing.
Ecuador is expelling the U.S. ambassador over a 2009 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks in which the diplomat accused the country’s former police chief of corruption.
Venezuela's nationwide consumer price index (NCPI), prepared by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and the National Statistics Institute (INE), showed a 1.4% increase in March 2011 compared to February 2011.
Venezuela will send Argentina 12 million barrels of diesel and fuel oil starting in May, an official from Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA said.