LatinNews Daily - 22 June 2018

Development: On 21 June, Colombia’s outgoing president, Juan Manuel Santos, met with his elected successor, Iván Duque, at the Casa de Nariño presidential palace to discuss the government transition process ahead of Duque’s formal inauguration scheduled for 7 August.... Read More

Peru: Peru’s mining & energy ministry (Minem) has announced that mining company Minquest Peru SA has communicated its intention to forgo its concession to exploit the ‘Red beds 2’ mining area.... Read More

Development: On 21 June, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, suffered a major defeat in the country’s superior labour court (TST). Significance: The defeat is a blow for the company at the end of a largely positive week.... Read More

* The Brazilian association of animal protein (ABPA), which groups together livestock producers, has released new figures which show that Brazil exported 1.61m tonnes of chicken meat in the first five months of the year, 8.5% less than in the same period in 2017.... Read More

Development: On 21 June, Nayib Bukele announced that he is in the process of finalising “a strategic alliance” with the left-wing Cambio Democrático (CD) party to allow him to compete in El Salvador’s presidential election in February 2019.... Read More

Costa Rica: Costa Rica’s finance ministry has announced that during the first five months for 2018 the fiscal deficit rose to 2.6% of GDP (or US$1.57bn), higher than the 2.2% of GDP registered during the same period in 2017.... Read More

Development: On 21 June, Luis Carlos Ugalde, a former president of Mexico’s national electoral authority, said that there is growing evidence that drug-trafficking money is being used to finance electoral campaigns in the country.... Read More

* The governing board of Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has increased its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.75%, the highest rate in nine years.... Read More

Development: On 21 June, during a swearing-in ceremony for his new energy and production ministers, Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri celebrated the decision by the index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) to upgrade the country from the status of frontier market to emerging market.... Read More

Argentina: Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest economic figures, which show that the unemployment rate in the country’s 31 main urban areas stood at 9.1% in the first quarter of the year.... Read More