LatinNews Daily - 28 August 2020

On 27 August, Colombia’s senate elected Margarita Cabello as the country’s first female prosecutor general, after she resigned as President Iván Duque’s justice minister on 18 August in order to take up the position.... Read More

* Peru’s economy & finance ministry has revised down its GDP growth projections for 2020, forecasting that the country’s economy will contract by a total of 12% this year.... Read More

On 27 August, the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro was shaken by violence for the second consecutive day, as people were held hostage and shots were exchanged between rival drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) and the police.... Read More

* Brazil’s national monetary council (CMN), the country’s highest economic policy body, has approved the immediate transfer of R$325bn (US$58.3bn) from the central bank (BCB) to the national treasury, to help administer the public debt amid liquidity problems resulting from the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

On 27 August trade unions including the powerful Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Construcción y Similares (Suntracs) staged protests in Panama City, outside the supreme court, where unionists filed a claim of unconstitutionality against recently approved changes to the labour legislation.... Read More

* Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado has welcomed the approval by the country’s congress of a US$504m loan in emergency financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under its Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), to support coronavirus (Covid-19) related health spending.... Read More

On 27 August Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador threatened to sue steelmaker Altos Hornos de México (Ahmsa) unless the firm agrees to pay reparations to the government.... Read More

* Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has released minutes of a meeting held by its board of directors, which warn that the government’s “public policies are not conducive to stimulating private investment”, and of the “absence of a counter-cyclical fiscal policy to support the productive sector”.... Read More

On 27 August, Chilean lorry drivers from the Confederación Nacional del Transporte de Carga (CNTC) blocked several national roads, over demands that the authorities take measures to put an end to the armed attacks against trucks in southern Chile.... Read More

* Uruguay’s economy minister Azucena Arbeleche has announced a reduction in the official target inflation range from the current 3%-7%, to 3%-6% as of September 2022, to reach 3.7% by 2024.... Read More

Due to a public holiday there will be no LatinNews Daily on 31 August.... Read More