
Argentina is on track to harvest more wheat this season as greater acreage and coming warm weather should offset any yield loss caused by recent frosts that hit in the last days of the Southern Hemisphere winter.

The Brazilian industrial federation on Wednesday upped its 2013 growth forecast to 1.4% from 1% and its GDP growth projection from 2% to 2.4%. But, despite the better data, the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) urged caution. The improved economic outlook is no guarantee of a strong growth rate, it said.

The recently approved Transparency Law has exposed that at least a third of the 594 Brazilian federal lawmakers have pending bills with criminal and administrative courts referred mainly to cases of corruption, which is expected to have an impact in the coming elections of next year when most of Congress will be renewed.

Argentina’s 2013/14 soybean crop will be above 50 million tons while corn can be expected to reach 30 million tons, according to the country’s Agriculture minister Norberto Yauhar, based on preliminary production estimates. The minister also advanced that caps on wheat and corn exports could be lifted in the near future.

British Ambassador in Uruguay hosted a lunch in honor of Laura Silva, awarded a Chevening Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. As part of the Foreign Service Program, Laura will pursue a Master in Diplomatic Studies at Oxford University.

The powerful manufacturers lobby, Sao Paulo’s Industry Federation, Fiesp believes a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union is very much needed so that Latam’s largest economy climbs out from the “commercial isolation” in which it currently stands.

The Brazilian state development bank BNDES is “overbooked” and needs the private sector to step up funding in investments, according to bank president Luciano Coutinho. Lending by BNDES and other public banks has increased six times faster than credit by non-state bank this year, as the government tries to fuel economic growth.

Chile’s Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army General Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba was in the UK for an official visit to strengthen links between the British and Chilean armies.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday he had scrapped his plan to take part in the UN General Assembly in New York to protect my life after purported threats on it. Just back from a visit to China Maduro said that on a layover in Vancouver he received intelligence on what he said were two highly serious provocations, which prompted him to scrap his UN trip.

South American foreign ministers are scheduled to meet next Friday in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to decide the name of the next Unasur secretary general, according to an official release from the main office in Quito.