Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff gathered information and advised guerrilla groups bank hold-ups in the sixties when the country was ruled by a military dictatorship according to reports published Friday in O’Globo media group.
Brazilian central bank president Henrique Meirelles will not accept any invitation to remain as head of the bank unless president-elect Dilma Rousseff gives him full guarantees of “absolute autonomy” in running the institution. He also rejects the idea of holding on the job during the first quarter of 2011 until a definitive successor is named.
Venezuela may formally devalue its currency “at least” 15% in early 2011, Barclays Capital said in a report sent via e-mail, changing its position after meetings with Finance Ministry and central bank officials in Caracas.
The “dangerous behaviour” of the presidents of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador shows “an undeniable link between the decline of democratic freedoms and human rights and the increase of tangible risks to the security of our region,” said US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl), a Cuban-American lawmaker.
Brazil’s ruling Workers Party main ally in Congress Brazilian Democratic Movement, PMDB, has formed its own legislative group hoping to dispute some of the most strategic posts in the new congress that takes office next January first.
The Russian government approved a three year (2011/2013) privatization plan paving the way for a sale of federal assets which could yield 1 trillion roubles (33 billion US dollars), Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said in Moscow following a cabinet meeting.
The Cuban government has launched an aggressive campaign on its proposed economic reforms as it tries to whip up public opinion enthusiasm and in its own ranks ahead of a Communist Party congress to approve them in April.
Finance Secretary Hernán Lorenzino said Argentina wants to successfully conclude negotiations with the Paris Club Group of creditor nations involving 6.7 to 8 billion US dollars in defaulted debt before April.
EU farm spending, worth almost 60 billion Euros annually, should no longer be based on previous subsidy levels for farmers, the European Commission has said. But subsidies are still needed to protect Europe's food supplies and rural diversity, it believes.
Ireland's banking problems are likely to have a direct effect on the United Kingdom's battered institutions. According to the Bank of International Settlements, UK banks have a total exposure to Irish lenders of 222 billion US dollars (£139bn).