LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 23 October 2019

On 22 October, Brazil’s 81-member federal senate approved the base text for the pension reform (PEC 6/19) in a second round of voting, with 60 votes in favour and 19 against. ... Read More

* The index for Brazil’s São Paulo stock exchange (Ibovespa) has surged 1.28% and reached new records, closing the day at 107,381 base points, amid (later confirmed) expectations that the senate would pass the long-awaited pension reform.... Read More

On 22 October, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera unveiled a series of proposed economic and social services reforms designed to address the various demands made by those protesting over economic inequality in the country.... Read More

* Argentina’s government has granted QP Oil and Gas Sociedad Anónima Unipersonal, subsidiaries of the Qatar state-owned company Qatar Petroleum and US oil and gas company Exxon Mobil respectively, an eight-year permit to explore 5,800km2 located in the Malvinas Basin off the coast of southern Patagonia for the purpose of “performing hydrocarbon search tasks”.  Both companies will have “the right to obtain an exploitation concession of the hydrocarbons discovered inside the perimeter”.... Read More