
Wood chip exports from Latin America are on track to reach a record high of almost eight million tons in 2011, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. This would be an increase of 7% from last year and of almost 60% higher than in 2006.

Uruguay's President José Mujica said that Mercosur bloc is stalled and has no natural institutional operation to push other countries to express their willingness to enter it plus lacking the fluidity of a natural relationship.

Uruguay’s credit-rating outlook was raised on Thursday to positive by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the government’s commitment to keeping its budget deficit in check.

HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's new ice patrol ship, has arrived in Antarctica for the first time after her long sail south from Portsmouth. Her arrival, via Montevideo in Uruguay, coincided with the centenary of the Royal Navy's Captain Scott reaching the South Pole.

Finance Minister Fernando Lorenzo said that Uruguay’s economy in 2011 expanded an estimated 6%, the ninth year running of sustained growth, and the budget fiscal deficit was 0.8% of GDP.

The number of tourists arriving in Uruguay this summer season has erupted into an open controversy between the government and tourism operators who question the official stats release of the first fifteen days of January.

The leading residential seaside resort in Uruguay which has made the reviews of some of the most significant world magazines because of its village spirit, excellent beaches and easy going environment but also with some of the best restaurants and art galleries in the country is threatened by speculators.

“In practical terms Venezuela if fully integrated to Mercosur” said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro during a meeting this week with foreign correspondents.

Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro said that the trade balance between Uruguay and Argentina is “definitely positive” although admitting some manufacturing sectors face difficulties because of the current Argentine obstructions to imports.

The Economy ministers from Colombia, Uruguay and Peru have been rated as the best in Latin America according to the financial magazine America Economica, a publication from the Chilean company Nanbei which does the annual survey based on interviews with 70 Latin American economists.