
Argentine farmers exported more than 300 million dollars worth of grains and oilseeds in the last two days of 2014 to help bring in much needed cash for the nation’s central bank. The situation was boosted by an agreement reached between farmers and the Argentine government regarding foreign currency payment for the grains and oilseed.

Latin America and the Caribbean's economic growth might recover modestly to 2.2% in 2015, up from 1.3% in 2014, its lowest rate since last decade's global financial crisis. Despite the slowdown, the region has managed to maintain its gains against poverty, said Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno.

The Argentine ministries of Foreign Affairs, and Agriculture and Fisheries are considering the consequences of a complaint filed in recent days by a top official from a local company (Empresa Pesquera de la Patagonia y Antártica S.A., Pesantar) warning that the vessel “Union Sur” had fished in Falkland Islands last November.

The Euro entered circulation in Lithuania on New Year, bringing the number of European Union (EU) Member States using the single European currency to 19. The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that Lithuania also joined its banking supervision under the Single Supervisory Mechanism.

The euro fell Friday to a 4 ½-year low against the dollar after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi indicated the bank could soon back a government bond-buying program to deal with alarmingly low inflation across the 19-country Euro-zone.

A non official anthem celebrating the Falkland Islands and which has been played at least on two public occasions is making the round of Facebook and can be enjoyed in U Tube.

France's influential economist Thomas Piketty, author of the bestseller Capital in the 21st Century, refused to accept the country's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, arguing it is not the government's job to decide who is honorable and criticizing policies of the current Socialist administration.

Senator Lucia Topolansky, the wife of outgoing Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, will run for mayor of Montevideo in the May 2015 elections, representatives of the governing centre leftist Broad Front coalition announced this week.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica defended Brazil's leadership in helping Latin America carve a place and advance in the world context, but at the same time underlined that even when Brazil seems large to its neighbors, together with the rest of the countries, the region is still small in global terms.

On the sidelines of the inauguration of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at the Planalto Palace seat of Brazil's Executive, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met briefly with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro in a hand-shake facilitated by Uruguay President Jose Mujica.