Economy & Business - October 2021

On 7 September Uruguay’s President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou did something he and his immediate predecessors had wanted to do for a long time: he announced a commitment to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA) with China.... Read More

It was a Chavista flag planted on Colombian soil.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso held a virtual meeting on 30 August with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in which he said the two leaders agreed to immediately begin trade negotiations with the aim of finalising a free trade agreement (FTA) by March 2022.... Read More

The ExpoCannaBiz business conference that took place in the northern city of Cartagena (Bolívar department) on 16 September was the first major event for the medicinal cannabis industry to take place in Colombia since new regulations targeting the sector were introduced on 23 July.... Read More

COLOMBIA | Revised tax reform promulgated.... Read More

September was a big month for a whole new range of green hydrogen pilot projects in Chile, from the far north to the far south of the country.... Read More

The right-wing government of President Jair Bolsonaro has a mixed record on structural economic reform in Brazil.... Read More

The Argentine government’s draft budget for 2022 is facing strong pressure in opposing directions.... Read More

BRAZIL | Unemployment falls but labour market still fragile.... Read More

Migrants sent US$1.389bn in remittances to Guatemala in August, the highest monthly total ever recorded, providing a lifeline as the country struggles to recover from the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

In August fDi Intelligence magazine, a service provided by the UK-based Financial Times, ranked Costa Rica top of its Greenfield Performance Index for foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows.... Read More

Trinidad & Tobago has been suffering from years of slow or negative growth which has now been compounded by the effects of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic even though Trinidad is not one of the Caribbean’s severely tourist-dependent countries.... Read More

*** GUTERRES PROPOSES DEBT PLAN.... Read More

HONDURAS | IMF expands assistance.... Read More

On 8 September Mexico’s finance minister, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, presented the federal government’s proposed 2022 budget, which includes its key economic assumptions for the year as well as its revenue and spending plans.... Read More

An investigation carried out by local newspaper Animal Político published on 22 September shows that two years after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that two of his priority social programmes would be implemented in three Central American countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras), less than half of the target population has benefitted.... Read More

On 22 September Mexico’s tourism minister Miguel Torruco launched a campaign in the US to promote Mexico as a key tourist destination for travellers there.... Read More

MEXICO | Cycle of interest rate hikes to continue.... Read More