Mercosur

• Thursday, January 15th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Good summer season in Bariloche

  Visitors to Bariloche and the surrounding lake area in Argentine Patagonia have almost doubled compared to last season and the occupancy rate has expanded 20% during the first fifteen days of 2004, according to the local Tourist Office.

• Wednesday, January 14th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  A positive summit for President Bush

  A watered down Nuevo Leon Declaration concluded the two days Americas summit held in Mexico with the participation of the leaders of the entire continent, (minus Cuba), and particularly the presence of US president George Bush in the campaign trail of a re-election year.

• Tuesday, January 13th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Lula set to return favours and reshuffle cabinet.

  Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's plan to build a Congressional majority and electoral alliance for the coming municipal polls with one of the parties he once bitterly battled received crucial support this Monday.

• Tuesday, January 13th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentine bondholders of the world, unite.

  The main world representatives of Argentine defaulted sovereign bond holders founded this week in Rome an international committee with the target of recovering their investments.

• Tuesday, January 13th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Half a million Latinamericans in Spain.

  More than half a million Latin Americans are legal residents of Spain, the largest group of documented immigrants in the country.

• Tuesday, January 13th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Free-trade declaration for Americas delayed.

  Disagreements over free trade on Tuesday held up agreement over a joint declaration by heads of state attending an extraordinary Summit of the Americas.

• Monday, January 12th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Tourism boom in Buenos Aires and Patagonia.

  Argentina's tourism industry is booming with a record 1,2 million foreign visitors in 2003 mostly from Brazil, Chile, United States and Spain.

• Monday, January 12th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Tierra del Fuego Governor takes office

  An “odd couple” even by Argentine standards, made up of an opposition Radical governor and a vice governor from the ruling Peronist party took office last Saturday in the city of Ushuaia, capital of the extreme south province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands.

• Monday, January 12th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Still stronger Euro ahead.

  The Euro is expected to continue its strong appreciation against the US dollar and could easily breakthrough the 1,30 psychological benchmark according to market analysts following the latest US labour market data released last week and the European Central Bank's decision to keep basic interest rates unchanged at 2%.

• Monday, January 12th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Basic food prices quadruplicates inflation.

  In spite of the good inflationary showing in Argentina for the last quarter of 2003, just 1%, for those Argentines living in poverty or below the poverty line the consumer price index was almost four times higher.