Consumer prices in United States during November dropped 0.6 percent, the sharpest slide in 56 years according to the latest release from the US Labor Department. The European Union also reported a similar slide in November with a 0,3 percent inflation contraction.
The fall was driven by a record 8 percent plunge in energy costs in the month, following a previous surge in oil prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Analysts had been expecting a 0.4 percent slump in US consumer prices.
Latin America posted solid economic growth in 2005 for the third straight year, but its economies lagged behind other nations struggling with poverty, a UN agency reported yesterday.
Regional economic growth was 4.3 percent in 2005 and is expected to be 4.1 percent next year, aided by favorable international conditions and strong internal demand, according to the Santiago-based Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean, CEPAL.
Marlene J. Street-Forrest, General Manager of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), has encouraged American investors to consider Jamaica and the emerging Caribbean Single Market (CSM) as the next credible option in their expanding global investment portfolio.
According to Mrs. Street-Forrest, improved efficiency and market confidence through electronic trading options, ongoing market surveillance, increased market capitalization and a foreign exchange rate regime determined by prevailing market conditions, were key policy indicators, which made Jamaica a credible investment option.
Caribbean finance ministers agreed at a meeting in Kingston last week to create a $10-million development fund to be used in addressing any economic dislocation caused by the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which will be implemented on January 1.
The meeting of the finance ministers took place at Kingston´s Jamaica Pegasus Hotel and was presided over by CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington.
The Trinidad and Tobago government on Monday signed a multi-million dollar deal agreement with China which would see the setting up of three steel manufacturing plants in Trinidad.
The deal was signed based on the product output of a newly-established company in Port of Spain, Alutrint Limited, which is an aluminum smelter plant, and the China-based National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation (CEMEC).
Jamaica is seeking to deepen cooperation with Cuba in the areas of water and housing development.
Water and housing minister Donald Buchanan, who last week led a delegation to Cuba, where meetings were held with Cuba´s water minister Jorge Aspiolea Roig and president of the National Housing Institute of Cuba, Victor Ramirez Ruiz, said the cooperation will also involve the exchange of technical expertise.