Brazil kissed the year 2003 good-bye with a favorable trade balance tipping to $24.8 billion, the largest black numbers in the history of the country, governmental sources indicated.

The 2003 trade surplus was 89 percent higher than the year before when the country’s exports did imports one better by a $13.1 billion margin.

Last year’s upshots were also up $19.2 billion compared to the 1988 spreadsheets, up to now the nation’s all-time high.

Brazil’s gross national product (GNP) will grow 3.5 percent next year, a couple of private institutions reportedly pointed out this week in the nation’s capital.

The new forecast was independently made by the National Industry Confederation (NIC) and the Brazilian Society of Studies on Transnational Companies and Economic Globalization (BSSTCEG) based on reckonings of direct foreign investment expected to reach $15 billion in 2004.

Costa Rica is just within an ace of inking a free trade agreement with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Central American country’s Government Minister Ricardo Toledo reportedly said.

“The FTA with CARICOM is a fact and we’re going to sign it anytime soon. I wish it were this year,” Mr. Toledo was quoted as saying in morning newspaper La Prensa Libre. The signing ceremony could take place in Jamaica as soon as the island nation’s secretary-general Edward Greene gives it the green light.

The arrival of tourists to Chile soured 12.8 percent this year with dramatic increases in the number of European travelers, the country’s National Tourism Service (SERNATUR) reported this week. A grand total of 1,676,976 visitors spent $1.04 billion in Chilean territory for a solid 8.4 percent growth compared to last year’s digits, the state-run service informed.

The leisure industry is by and large Nicaragua’s second largest income source as local authorities expect to rake in nearly $150 million this year, said Lucia Salazar, chairwoman of the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR).

Mrs. Salazar noted the nation’s hospitality industry chipped in $116 million last year for a solid double-digit growth in the number of foreign arrivals to that Central American country.

France-based tourist company Club Mediterranée has just disclosed 94 million euros ($115 million) in gross losses over the past fiscal year.

According to the group’s front office, sales in that span of time barely peaked 1.6 billion euros for a 3.5 percent slide compared to the previous fiscal year.

In the same breath, the company took a 3-million-euro plunge in business operations.

However, the French group managed to stay in the black for most of the twelve-month period.