The Switzerland of South America Published: March 1 2010 02:00
* Chile has a population of 16.5m people, with one of the lowest birth rates in Latin America, and a lower infant mortality rate than Hungary, Latvia and Cyprus. * With a gross domestic product per capita of $14,700 in 2009, Chile ranks higher on this measure than European Union members Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the rest of South America. * It has the strongest sovereign credit rating in Latin America, with public debt currently standing at about 9 per cent of GDP. * Chile is the word's largest copper producer, with the majority of the industry based in the north of the country. * Exports account for about 40 per cent of GDP, with copper, fruit, fish, wine and chemicals the country's staple trading goods. * The average age of a Chilean is 31.4 years, with almost 90 per cent of the population living in urban centres. Literacy levels currently stand at about 95 per cent.
Mugabe seeks local ownership for every company By Tony Hawkins in Harare / Published: March 1 2010 22:29
Zimbabwe’s regime was accused of jeopardising investment on Monday when a law forcing all foreign-owned companies to transfer 51 per cent of their shares to “indigenous” people came into effect.
HK unveils new regime on short selling By Robert Cookson in Hong Kong / Published: March 2 2010 18:25
Market participants will have to disclose any short position that is equal to or greater than 0.02 per cent of the issued share capital of a listed company, or a market value of HK$30m ($3.8m), whichever is lower.
That compares with the disclosure threshold of 0.25 per cent of issued share capital that was implemented in the UK, the US, and Japan during the financial crisis. The SFC does not plan to “name and shame” individual short sellers. Rather, it will aggregate the data it collects and publish the short positions for each stock a week later.