Latin America

Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 20:48 UTC
Brazil enforces new reserve requirements to weaken the Real vis-à-vis US dollar

The Brazilian currency Real weakened after the central bank introduced reserve requirements on short positions in U.S. dollars held by local banks with the purpose of weakening the Real which this week reached a historic high against the greenback.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 20:16 UTC
Chile’s measures to weaken the Peso are working in the short term

Chile's peso was operating Thursday at 495 to the US dollar after depreciating around 6% in two sessions on a 12 billion US dollars central bank intervention program announced this week.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 13:36 UTC
US embassy Wikileak questions Chilean president Piñera’s business practices

United States Ambassador to Chile Alejandro D. Wolff apologized to Chile’s President Sebastian Piñera for Wikileak revelations that showed U.S. officials questioning the past businessman practices of Piñera during last year’s presidential runoff race between the Conservative coalition candidate and Senator Eduardo Frei, of the center-left Concertacion coalition
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 13:10 UTC
Woman mayor takes office in Lima, Peru’s most populated city

Susana Villaran took office this week as the first popularly elected female mayor of Lima, in a ceremony attended by Peruvian President Alan Garcia and former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 12:56 UTC
Cuban trade unions “guarantors” of the elimination of 500.000 state jobs

Layoffs planned to eliminate some 500,000 state jobs in Cuba this year got underway this week, according to the island’s only legal workers’ organization. The official weekly Trabajadores cited a speech by CTC chief Salvador Valdes in the eastern province of Holguin, in which he said it was the union’s responsibility to “be the guarantor” of the process of labour reorganization.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 12:46 UTC
Bolivia back steps and offers new deal to attract foreign oil companies

President Evo Morales’ government has offered to reimburse 100% of the cost of successful exploratory drilling in Bolivia by private oil and natural gas companies, state-owned energy company YPFB announced this week.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 12:19 UTC
Magallanes has the lowest unemployment rate in Chile

Magallanes in the extreme south of Chile became the region with the lowest unemployment in the country during the September-November quarter. According to the official Chilean statistics office the jobless rate in Magallanes dropped to 4.1% compared to the national 7.1%.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 12:09 UTC
Magallanes region declare UV radiation exposure emergency first week of 2011

Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile has declared an UV radiation emergency for the first weekend of 2011. According to the UV scale radiation or solar exposition is forecasted to reach 9 which is described as “very high and extreme”.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 12:05 UTC
Record prices for copper plummet the US dollar to new lows against Chilean Peso

The US dollar ended 2010 at a record low vis-à-vis the Chilean peso which has soared on the strong global demand for copper, the country’s main export. On Friday December 31st the US dollar was operating at 467.30 and 467.80 in Santiago’s money markets, which is the lowest since May 19, 3008 with 467.40.
Thursday, January 6th 2011 - 11:48 UTC
Cuban reforms on the move: soap and toothpaste eliminated from monthly ration

Cuba’s government, trying to save money and eliminate subsidies announced this week it will remove soap, toothpaste and detergent from the monthly ration of food and consumer products it has handed out since the early days of the Cuban revolution.