Latin America prepares for economic downturn
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Latin American finance ministers are trying to shield their countries from disaster amid predictions U.S. government budget cutbacks could hurt the region’s economies.
Economic ministers from the 11-nation Unasur organization met last week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to discuss defensive strategies. They are working on an agreement that would create a roughly $12 billion emergency fund to bail out collapsing economies.
They also seek to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar for international trade and to develop policies to balance their trade deficits.
Unasur consists of Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.
So far, Latin America’s economy has avoided the worst of the economic collapses in the United States and Europe that began in 2008 with a stock market collapse and recession. A brief drop in commodities prices along with government spending programs that shored up declining industries helped them avoid the worst of the crisis. However, economists predict the resilience of Latin American economies will not last much longer.
South American economies grew at an average of 6.6 percent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.The Fund’s economists predict growth will slow to 4.7 percent this year and 4.1 percent in 2012.
By comparison, U.S. economic growth this year is running at 2 percent. Some European countries are showing no growth.
Stock markets in Latin American countries fell as much as 15 percent last week on news the credit rating service Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating to double-A plus from triple-A.
Augusto de la Torre, the World Bank’s chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, said this week the outlook for Latin America is uncertain as concerns grow about another crisis for the United States and Europe.
China could be the next to falter as Western markets dry up for their manufactured products, he said.
“If China has a hard landing, that will hit us hard,” de la Torre told the Peruvian news media during an economic meeting.
Unasur leaders are exploring options to increase trade with China as its Western markets for manufactured products fizzle.
Protecting the economy is a major campaign issue in Argentina, where current president Cristina Fernandez won a landslide victory in primary elections this week.
She said at a press conference after the primaries that keeping Argentina’s economy strong would be a top priority for her if she is re-elected in October.
Low-income persons are most likely to be hurt by U.S. budget cuts that could reverberate around the world, including Argentina, she said.
Wall Street economists warn that her policies of price controls and using central bank reserves to pay debts could backfire for South America’s third largest economy.
The policies strengthen government control but depress market forces that help to balance the economy, according to some economists.
Argentina’s inflation rate is running close to 25 percent.
Other economic concerns are arising in Brazil, where inexpensive imported products are hurting the domestic manufacturing industry.
Chile and Peru still have stable economies as investors try to protect their assets by purchasing gold and copper, but economists predict declines in the precious metals market.
A decrease in demand for oil is depressing the economies of Venezuela and Mexico.
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Escape Capsule Ready To Give Miners A Ride As Drilling Continues
Copiago, Chile (NewsBahn) – As three drills continued non-stop efforts to carve out escape tunnels for 33 miners trapped half a mile underground, the first capsule designed to lift the men out arrived Saturday at the mine site.
Painted in the red, white and blue of the Chilean flag, the slender “Phoenix Capsule” is designed to lift the miners one by one 2,300 feet to the surface and their loved ones, who haven’t seen them since the mine collapse on Aug. 5. Weighing more than 500 pounds, the 24-inch wide contraption can fit a 6-foot-4 person inside. It’s equipped with a supply of oxygen, communications equipment and retractable wheels. And an escape hatch.
Before any of the miners get inside, however, two people from the surface will ride down to join them. A rescue expert and a paramedic will evaluate the men’s physical and psychological condition to see who goes first.
Once on the surface, the men will be taken to a field hospital where they will be given antibiotics and fluids. Their eyes will be checked to ensure they’re adjusting after two months of darkness. After a brief visit with family, they will be choppered out to a nearby hospital where they will be get medical attention for at least two days.
First, though, the escape shafts have to be wide enough to accept the capsule and deep enough to reach the men. By early Saturday, one of three drills had created a 15-inch diameter hole about 1,400 feet into the mine, widening an earlier shaft. A second drill, which has been beset by technical issues, had created a tunnel wide enough for the capsule – about 28 inches–but it was only about 570 feet down. A third, of the type used to explore for oil, was about 200 feet below the surface.
Officials have maintained they will extract the miners by Nov. 1.
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NASA Experts Sent To Chile To Help Rescue Trapped Miners
New York, United States (AHN) – Four National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) experts have been sent to Chile to assist the local engineers and help speed up the operation to rescue 33 miners trapped 700 meters below the earth surface.
The Deputy Chief Medical Officer at NASA, Michael Duncan, said in a television interview that two physicians, a psychologist and an engineer would reach Chile soon to provide “nutritional and psychological support to the miners” who got trapped below the surface of the earth on August 5.
“Our plan is to go down and provide the advice that the Chileans have requested in the areas of nutritional support and behavioral health support,” the medical officer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston said.
The NASA spokesperson, William Jeffs, said Monday the experts would hold a meeting in Santiago on arrival to brief the media about the operation.
Officials in the northern Chilean town, where a copper and gold mine caved in, said it could take more than four months to make a two-feet wide bore hole in the mine to bring the miners on the surface. For now, a tiny 6-inch-wide tunnel is keeping the miners alive, with rescuers sending food, water, medicines and other life-saving commodities down the ‘umbilical chord’.
The NASA experts have been deputed to Santiago after a request was received from the Chilean government last week asking for expertise to keep the miners alive in the tough physical and psychological conditions.
“NASA has had a long experience in dealing with isolated environments…We train and plan contingencies for emergencies and we also have experience in other analog environments — undersea environments, and some dealings with our Antarctica analog as well,” Duncan was quoted as saying on TV.
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