LatinNews Daily - 23 July 2018

Development: On 21 July Cuba’s national assembly approved a new council of ministers as proposed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel.... Read More

Development: On 21 July Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro announced US$344m worth of investment to address the country’s health crisis, most of which will be spent on importing much needed medical equipment and medicines.... Read More

Ecuador: President Lenín Moreno has partially vetoed the national economic development plan that has recently been approved by the national legislature.... Read More

Development: On 22 July Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former army captain, officially launched his candidacy for Brazil’s presidency during a public event in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Significance: Bolsonaro currently polls in second place in public opinion surveys, behind the former leftist president Lula da Silva (2003-2011), who will probably be barred from running due to his corruption conviction.... Read More

*Local analysts have warned that should the current draught affecting south central Brazil continue in the second half of the year, then this could negatively affect the 2018/2019 sugar cane and coffee harvests.... Read More

Costa Rica: Costa Rica’s finance ministry has released new figures which show that the country’s fiscal deficit reached 2.84% of GDP in the first half of 2018, up from 2.47% registered in the same period the previous year.... Read More

Development: On 22 July Marcelo Ebrard, who has been designated as Mexico’s new foreign minister by President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, revealed that López Obrador has sent a letter to US President Donald Trump in which he asks him for his administration to quickly conclude the renegotiation of the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).... Read More

* According to an interview with local media, the chief economist at HSBC México, Alexis Milo, has announced that investors remain optimistic about the future of the country’s economy.... Read More

Development: On 22 July Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri held bilateral meetings with finance ministers from the US, France, and Chile on the sidelines of a two-day G-20 ministers summit held in Buenos Aires.... Read More

Paraguay: Gustavo Volpe, the president of the Unión Industrial del Paraguay (UIP) industrial lobby group, has said that Paraguay is currently experiencing a rapid period of industrialisation, in which the sector has almost doubled in size in recent years and now plays an increasingly more important role in the domestic economy.... Read More

Colombia: On 16 July, US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green announced US$6m in additional funding to help Colombia deal with the continued influx of Venezuelan migrants to its territory.... Read More