Brazilian exports of iron ore from January through May were down 19% in value from the same period last year, according to a report from Sao Paulo based newspaper Folha on Thursday.
Brazil and China will sign an agreement in the coming weeks to swap as much as 30 billion in their two currencies, Brazil Finance Minister Guido Mantega said.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to attend the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio De Janeiro, and pay official visits to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile from June 20 to 26, it was announced in Beijing the Foreign Ministry
China, the world's second-biggest oil user, will reduce gasoline and diesel prices by the most since 2008 after global crude costs slumped. State-controlled retail gasoline prices will fall by 530 Yuan (83 dollars) a metric ton and diesel will be cut by 510 Yuan, the National Development and Reform Commission, NDRC, the nation's top economic planner, said on its website last week.
China has cut its key interest rates for the first time since 2008, in an attempt to boost its slowing growth. The benchmark one-year loan rate was cut by a quarter of one percent to 6.31% while deposit rates were cut from 3.5% to 3.25%.
China has offered Mercosur to consider the possibility of negotiating a free trade agreement revealed Uruguay, when the South American block is going through one of its worst moments ever so distant from the integration process pledges of 1991.
Uruguay’s long standing dream of building a deep-water port in the east of the country could become a reality in coming days when China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visits the country, according to the government financed newspaper La Republica.
An oceanographic ship carrying China's manned deep-sea submersible, Jiaolong, left the eastern port city of Jiangyin on June 3 for the Mariana Trench to attempt the world's deepest manned submersible dive.
Uruguay looks forward to increase trade with China in value and diversification as Beijing commands a bigger economic and cooperation role in South America, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro said in an interview with China Daily.
China's exports to Argentina in April declined 34.4 percent from last year, the largest monthly drop since the 2009 global recession, signalling the deepening negative influence of Argentina's trade protectionism on bilateral trade, analysts and trade experts said, quoted by the official Beijing news agency.