LatinNews Daily - 23 September 2021

On 22 September, the president of the Peruvian congress’s foreign affairs commission, Ernesto Bustamente, announced that Foreign Minister Óscar Maúrtua has been summoned to explain an unscheduled meeting between President Pedro Castillo and Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

* The Observatorio Venezolano de Finanzas (OVF), an independent economic think-tank created by Venezuela’s political opposition, has reported that economic activity in Q2 2021 contracted by 2.2% compared with the previous quarter.... Read More

On 22 September, Brazil’s senate approved a constitutional amendment (PEC) which introduces small reforms to the electoral system.... Read More

* The monetary policy committee (Copom) in Brazil’s central bank (BCB) has unanimously agreed to increase the benchmark interest rate (Selic) by 100 basis points (bp) to 6.25%.... Read More

On 22 September various unions, including the powerful Sindicato Único Nacional de Trabajadores de la Construcción y Similares (Suntracs), as well as students, teachers’ associations and women’s rights groups staged protests outside Panama’s legislative assembly, in Panama City.... Read More

* Honduras’ central bank (BCH) has released the latest figures for its monthly economic activity index (Imae), which show that economic activity grew 15.6% in July 2021 year-on-year, the fifth consecutive month of growth after increasing 20.9% in June, 30.5% in May, 27.0% in April, and 13.5% in March.... Read More

On 22 September Mexico’s federal public security (SSPC) minister, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, announced that homicides in the first eight months of 2021 totalled 22,611, a 3.9% decline on the same period in 2020.... Read More

* The Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE), Mexico’s leading private sector lobby, has called upon the government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador not to hinder the legal import of fuel and “artificially” favour the state-owned oil company Pemex.... Read More

On 22 September the government announced that it was raising the threshold for the ‘Impuesto a las Ganancias’, a payroll levy, in a move that will exempt an estimated 1.2m workers from having to pay the tax.... Read More

* Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released the latest figures on trade flows, which show that the country recorded a US$2.34bn surplus in August.... Read More