Politics

• Friday, October 4th 2013 - 07:02 UTC

  IMF warns US debt ceiling controversy is a far worse threat to global economy

  

  IMF managing director Christine Lagarde says failure to raise the US debt ceiling would be a far worse threat to the global economy than the current shutdown. The shutdown is due to a budget standoff between President Barack Obama and Congress. But a worse problem looms: the US will run out of money if there is no agreement to raise the borrowing limit.

• Friday, October 4th 2013 - 07:00 UTC

  “Straight up to the point of extreme idiocy, but we won’t cross it” predicts Buffett

  

  Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said he expects the United States Congress to resolve a stalemate over the US debt ceiling before it seriously harms the country.

• Friday, October 4th 2013 - 06:53 UTC

  Argentina credit rating conditioned by poor credibility and unreliable stats, says Moody’s

  

  An upgrade of Argentina’s credit rating depends on the government taking measures to boost data credibility while compensating investors holding defaulted debt and companies for expropriated assets, said Gabriel Torres, Argentina’s sovereign credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 23:12 UTC

  Argentine oil company finds way to invest in Vaca Muerta and elude legal action from Repsol

  

  One day after the Argentine government extended the deadline to legalize undeclared cash, energy company Bridas International gave new life to the BAADE energy bonds, the most relegated portion of the whitewash scheme, by saying it would snap up 500 million dollars of the paper.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 22:02 UTC

  Minister Swire visit confirms close UK links with Sao Paulo university and research centers

  

  Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for Latin America, Hugo Swire is in Sao Paulo the last leg of this latest South American tour that had him in Asuncion, Paraguay and the Brazilian cities of Porto Alegre and Brasília in the beginning of the week.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 21:58 UTC

  UK tells Spain: ‘no sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content’

  

  Britain has enshrined, in a written statement to the United Nations, its commitment that it will not enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content. And it has also reaffirmed its sovereignty over Gibraltar and its territorial waters, according to the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 21:46 UTC

  Brazil industry production unexpectedly stalls in August

  

  Brazilian industry production unexpectedly stalled in August, as factories reduced the output of consumer goods. Industrial output was unchanged in August after tumbling a revised 2.4% in July, the national statistics agency said in Rio de Janeiro.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 21:42 UTC

  Uruguay and Singapore sign open skies agreement including hub and regional flights

  

  Singapore has signed a new Open Skies Agreement with Uruguay. The agreement allows designated airlines to fly between both countries and it is more liberal than conventional ones, said the Singapore Ministry of Transport in a statement on Wednesday.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 21:24 UTC

  Brazil offers Paraguay Mercosur chair, but apparently Argentina is not convinced

  

  Brazil offered Paraguay the rotating chair of Mercosur as of next December, as part of an overall understanding to have the landlocked country return to the block, while accepting the incorporation of Venezuela as a full member of the group. Paraguay rejects Venezuela’s membership alleging it was done against the will of its Senate and in breach of national and international law and of the Mercosur charter.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:23 UTC

  Brazil, a giant but with “a lot of fat and much in the way of muscle”

  

  Brazil, Latin America's largest economy is in dire need of structural reforms and reduced government bloat to fuel sustainable growth, analysts say. And this will not happen overnight and will take massive political will. A giant but it carries “a lot of fat and not much in the way of muscle”.