By Nacha Cattan

MEXICO CITY (MNI) - President Felipe Calderon will present Mexico's 2011 budget to Congress Wednesday which will open the next chapter in the debate that has turned into a tug-of-war between the political party in power and the main opposition party jockeying to win the presidency in the 2012 national election.

BRUSSELS (MNI) - Irish bond spreads Wednesday hit their widest level since the start of European Monetary Union as traders speculated that the country won't be able to manage its large budget deficit, exacerbated by the expensive problems of its troubled banking system.

The Irish government is meeting on Wednesday to debate the future of Anglo Irish Bank after saying on Tuesday that it would keep the bank on state funded life-support until the end of the year.

OTTAWA (MNI) The following is the text of the Bank of Canada policy statement released Wednesday:

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is raising its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.

By Courtney Tower

OTTAWA (MNI) - The Bank of Canada raised its key policy rate Wednesday by 0.25% to 1.0% although it expects Canadian economic recovery to be slightly more gradual than it had predicted in July.

--- Signals enhanced concern re strength C$ slowing growth

--- C$ strength to "more than fully offset" CAN growth factors

--- H2 growth to be slightly better than 2.15% earlier expected

By Courtney Tower

OTTAWA (MNI) - The Bank of Canada Tuesday maintained its policy interest rate at 0.25%, as expected, but signalled growing concern that the strong Canadian dollar is offsetting economic recovery.

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following is the text of the weekly retail sales report released by Johnson Redbook Tuesday, for the month-to-date through the week-ended September 4:

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was up 3.0% in the first week of September. Month-to-date, September was up 3.0% compared to September of last year (relative to a revised target of a 2.9% gain). Month-over-month showed -0.1% compared to August (relative to a target of a 0.2% drop). September is a five-week month on the retail calendar ending on October 2nd.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank Economic activity of approximately six weeks prior to release.

Release Data Date Thru District President

Release Data Date Thru District President

28-Jul-10 19-Jul-10 St. Louis James Bullard

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following are top events and news reported Wednesday ET in the global financial system by Market News International: