Mercosur

• 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%.

• 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 - 16:12 UTC

  Falklands, South Atlantic islands, Antarctica included in new Tierra del Fuego official map

  

  Argentina's most southern province identified as Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic islands is redesigning its internal political limits with the purpose of “contributing to the territorial sovereignty of the Nation”, according to a bill sent to the provincial legislative by governor Fabiana Ríos and drafted with help from the Malvinas Question Advisory Observatory.

• 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.

• Wednesday, April 1st 2015 - 08:05 UTC

  Public-private partnership to rehabilitate Uruguay's most transited highways

  

  Spanish construction company Sacyr joined Uruguay's Grinor in a consortium bidding for a contract to recover and maintain highways in the Mercosur member country.

• Friday, March 27th 2015 - 07:15 UTC

  Mercosur is being left out of the main global trade flows, argues Uruguay

  

  Mercosur is being left out of the main global trade flows since it only belongs to 1% of free trade treaties or tariff preference agreements, which actually represent half of world trade, said Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa during a conference on “Education and regional integration”.

• Thursday, March 19th 2015 - 07:26 UTC

  Uruguay's Economy minister warns about Mercosur and Brazilian situation

  

  Uruguay's Economy minister Danilo Astori warned about the new regional and international context, not so favorable to his country's interests as in recent years, and underlined that Mercosur is going through one of its worst moments since foundation in 1991.

• Sunday, March 15th 2015 - 02:33 UTC

  Argentina will keep to its monetary policy despite a 20% devaluation of the Brazilian Real

  

  Argentina’s central bank governor Alejandro Vanoli said that despite the continued erosion of the Brazilian currency against the US dollar, which ended the week trading at 3.28 Real to the greenback, monetary policy will continue to manage the foreign exchange to avoid volatility and ensure economic growth.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 11:38 UTC

  Uruguay looks to Paraguay in support of a more open and dynamic Mercosur

  

  Fresh from an incident with Venezuela which delayed and displaced a Unasur meeting, the Uruguayan government is looking for closer relations with the conservative administration of Paraguay, putting the emphasis on regional integration but also in making Mercosur a more open and dynamic trade and cooperation block.

• Friday, March 6th 2015 - 09:06 UTC

  Mercosur has failed, Argentina needs new partners: the Pacific Alliance?

  

  “Mercosur as a unified space has failed and Argentina must start thinking in a new partner, which could be the Pacific Alliance” said one of Argentina's main businessmen with interests in a diversified portfolio, Eduardo Eurnekian. He made the statement on the sidelines of the World's Chambers Federation executive board meeting in Buenos Aires.