Activities in Uruguay’s private bank branches were partially altered Thursday following the killing earlier in the week of a security guard during a robbery attempt. This was the seventh bank robbery since the beginning of the year and triggered a controversy between the banks and the Ministry of Interior.
Argentines are no longer the king ‘beef-consumers’ with the average 63.3 kilos per person per year in the 2003/2010 period falling to 46.7 kilos in the first quarter of this year, according to Economia & Regiones private consultancy report.
Foreign direct investment, FDI, in Uruguay during 2010 reached 1.627 billion US dollars which represents a 29% increase over 2009 and puts the country among the top six FDI recipients in South America and eighth in the region, according to the latest report from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC.
A visiting delegation from the United Arab Emirates, UAE, signed this week an ‘open skies’ air services agreement with Uruguay.
Uruguay’s April consumer inflation, 0.34%, the lowest since last November came as a relief for government authorities, but the accumulated rate of the last twelve months was 8.34%, well above the Central bank 4% to 6% target. Furthermore compared to April 2010 inflation was almost double: 0.18% vs 0.34%, according to the country’s Statistics Institute, INE.
With Uruguay’s economy growing at 8.5% in 2010 and managing to skip the 2009 slowdown with a 2.86% expansion, the housing market in the capital Montevideo is going through an excellent moment according to Global Property Guide based on info from local appraisers.
India emphasized the need to deepen trade and investment engagements with Latin America by expanding the existing PTA with Mercosur, during a business seminar in Montevideo, Uruguay. But he added that double tax and investment protections agreements are critical to expansion.
Uruguayan Vice-president Danilo Astori acknowledged that overturning the “Expired Crimes” or amnesty bill for human rights violators during the military dictatorship (1973/1985) could cost the ruling coalition ‘dearly’ and said he voted following ‘party discipline’.
Chilean fuel and forestry conglomerate Empresas Copec SA will invest a record 1.2 billion US dollars this year, company president Roberto Angelini said on Wednesday, according to local newswire Valor Futuro.
A top level Indian business delegation headed by Minister of state for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia is travelling to Argentina and Uruguay to boost ties with Mercosur, according to the Indo-Asian news agency.