Economy & Business - September 2020

Amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and a global economic recession, the Brazilian economy is having a hard time, with GDP contracting by 9.7% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter.... Read More

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on 28 August that its technical team had reached a provisional agreement with the Ecuadorian government led by Lenín Moreno for a 27-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) credit agreement.... Read More

The beleaguered Hidroituango hydroelectric dam project, based in Colombia’s Antioquia department, was dealt yet another blow on 12 August, when the entire board of directors of Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), the state-owned utility company responsible for the project, sent a letter to the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, announcing their resignation.... Read More

It was announced on 14 August that the subscription television service DirecTV would be returning to Venezuela after a three-month hiatus, following US telecommunications company AT&T’s decision to cease operations in Venezuela.... Read More

PERU | Historic GDP crash in Q2.... Read More

After six months in office, Uruguay’s centre-right government of President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou has submitted a five-year budget for approval by the legislature.... Read More

After reaching major debt rescheduling milestones, the Argentine government led by President Alberto Fernández has announced new stimulus measures for the industrial sector and plans for a wealth tax.... Read More

Although stock market prices – and therefore company valuations – have been volatile, during the course of August Argentina-born e-commerce group, Mercado Libre, pushed past more traditional competitors in mining and gas to become Latin America’s largest company by market capitalisation.... Read More

Gol Líneas Aéreas Inteligentes, one of Brazil’s top budget airlines, has managed to repay a critical US$300m loan with some help from the US carrier Delta Airlines.... Read More

CHILE| Strong FDI performance.... Read More

A new report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) shows that the value of goods exports declined year-on-year in the period January-May 2020 for every country in Latin America apart from four Central American nations - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.... Read More

At the beginning of August, the Panamanian government led by President Laurentino Cortizo pushed through a controversial change to the country’s labour code.... Read More

As a country that is heavily dependent on tourism, Barbados is inevitably one of the worst affected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

REGION | Remittances recover.... Read More

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on 19 August attended with his cabinet the LIX plenary meeting of the national conference of governors (Conago) in San Luis Potosí, the capital of the eponymous state.... Read More

Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) released on 21 August its latest figures on domestic trade, which includes both retail and wholesale of goods and services.... Read More

The United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP) released its Human Development and Covid-19 in Mexico: Challenges for a Sustainable Recovery report on 14 July.... Read More

Falling investment: On 6 August Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) released figures for May on gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), according to which investment in fixed capital goods such as machinery and equipment fell by 38.4% year-on-year, and by 4.5% compared with April.... Read More