Soybean processing and exports from the US, Argentina and Brazil, the largest shippers, were below expectations in the second quarter on reduced Chinese imports and competition from palm oil, Oil World said in a Tuesday released report.
China will become Latin America's second largest trade partner as early as in 2015, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said this week.
China on Thursday pledged to extend limits on new home purchases to smaller cities as authorities step up efforts to cool the country's red-hot real estate market. The State Council, or cabinet, said it would tighten existing property restrictions in cities that have seen excessive price rises to push them back to reasonable levels.
Inflation in China has risen to its highest level for three years, despite a series of interest rate rises and curbs on bank lending. Prices in June rose 6.4% from a year earlier, well above the rate for May.
China has increased its main interest rates for the third time this year to try to curb inflation. Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, said its one-year lending rate would rise to 6.56% from 6.31% and its one-year deposit rate to 3.5% from 3.25%.
Mercosur idea of a common trade defence policy has been present since the nineties but the initiative is difficult to implement because agreeing on a joint safeguard does not necessarily meet the demands of different interests, according to a leading economist from Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation, GVF.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has issued a mea culpa for rampant corruption in the ruling Communist Party, warning members about alienating the public as the organisation celebrates its 90th anniversary.
High speed trains linking Beijing and Shanghai made their commercial debut on Thursday on a 33 billion US dollars track China hopes will open a new page to the country’s rail history and help ease its overloaded transport system.
Fresh evidence shows that Chinese local governments commit the same sins as their counterparts in South America and even Spain, where most provinces, states and regional autonomies traditionally pile billions of dollars in debt that following some political arrangement are finally bailed out by the central government.
Global rice production is expected to touch 476 million tons in 2011, on the back of improved weather conditions, as the influence of La Niña is expected to neutralize by June, United Nation’s body FAO said.