The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) approved a $50 million (41 million euro) revolving credit line for the Colombian unit of Spanish bank BBVA.
The credit line will finance foreign trade operations, working capital, investment projects, and letters of credit issuance and confirmation.
CAF is a multilateral financial institution whose mission is to promote sustainable development in its member countries, and Latin American regional integration. Its principal members are the five countries of the Andean Community: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
The poverty rate in Argentina stood at 33.8% in the second quarter of 2005, down from 40.2% in the second quarter of 2004 and 38.9% in the first quarter of 2005, according to the country's statistics institute INDEC, released today.
The extreme poverty rate stood at 12.2% in the second quarter of 2005, compared to 15% in the second quarter of 2004 and 13.8% in the first quarter of 2005.
A total of 1.7 million households, comprising 7.9 million people, live in poverty in Argentina, according to INDEC figures for 2005. A total 594,000 households, comprising 2.8 million people live in extreme poverty, meaning that their income is insufficient to cover the costs of the basic food basket.
The survey covers an urban population of 23 million. Extrapolating the result for a total population of some 36 million people, the number of poor people comes to 12.2 million, including about four million indigent people.
A two-member Antigua and Barbuda delegation, comprising UN Ambassador Dr John Ashe and legal adviser Mark Mendel, is currently in Geneva ahead of Friday's World Trade Organization (WTO ) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) meeting.
The United States is expected Friday, March 17th, to give some indication on how it intends to comply with the DSB's recommendations on the Internet-gaming dispute between the US and Antigua and Barbuda.
"It would seem to my government that tomorrow's meeting would be a good opportunity for the US to inform the WTO membership exactly how it intends to comply fully with the various recommendations of the DSB," said Antigua and Barbuda's Minister of Finance and the Economy Dr Errol Cort.
News from Euromoney Group sources