The world's leading economies gave themselves a bit more space on Monday to meet targets for cutting budget deficits rather than risk worsening a slowdown in many countries, chief among them the United States.
Argentine Economy minister Hernan Lorenzino struck back at Colombia’s claim that it has overtaken his country to become South America’s second largest economy behind Brazil.
Brazil’s central bank president Alexandre Tombini refuted on Monday arguments that the US expansionist monetary policy do not harm emerging countries such as Brazil.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the central bank's measures to bolster the US economy. Brazil has said US monetary easing to keep interest rates low and weaken the dollar has hurt emerging economies. And IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned on Sunday of consequent asset bubbles developing in emerging nations.
A good one and a bad one for Brazil: The New York Times announced on Sunday that it will launch an online edition Portuguese language edition in 2013 given the country’s growing global clout, but on the other hand Brazil’s nine nation constituency at the IMF will lose a member, Colombia that will join Mexico.
The IMF on Thursday backed giving debt-burdened Greece and Spain more time to reduce their budget deficits, cautioning that cutting too far, too fast would do more harm than good.
Standard & Poor's cut Spain's sovereign credit rating to BBB-minus, just above junk territory, citing a deepening economic recession that is limiting the government's policy options to arrest the slide.
Argentina will grow 2.6% in 2012 according to the IMF latest World Economic Outlook, which is below the 3.4% estimated by President Cristina Fernandez administration for this year’s budget.
Britain must cut its budget deficit and fix its economy or face long-term decline, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Wednesday, seeking to convince voters that his austerity plan is the only way forward.
The IMF cut its growth forecasts on Monday for Latin America and its largest economy Brazil, against a backdrop of deteriorating global growth and contagion risks if the Euro zone crisis deepens and China's growth slows more than expected.