LatinNews Daily - 07 January 2022

On 6 January Argentine bonds fell sharply and country risk increased in response to comments by President Alberto Fernández, his spokesperson Gabriela Cerruti, and his economy minister, Martín Guzmán, suggesting that reaching a debt-restructuring accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could be even more difficult than thought.... Read More

On 6 January, campaigning closed ahead of the controversial repeat gubernatorial election in Venezuela’s Barinas state, which was initially won by the opposition before the national electoral council (CNE) ordered a re-run.... Read More

* Peru’s central bank (BCRP) has raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 3.00%, in its fifth consecutive rate hike.... Read More

On 6 January, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro criticised the federal healthcare regulator (Anvisa) for “having become another [government] power in Brazil”, in reference to the position it has taken regarding vaccines against the coronavirus (Covid-19).... Read More

* Brazil’s national federation of automobile dealers (Fenabrave) has released its latest figures for the year 2021, which show that although overall vehicle sales grew 10.5% compared with 2020, the sale of cars specifically shrank by 3.56%.... Read More

On 6 January human rights experts in El Salvador expressed scepticism over the previous day’s decision by the supreme court’s constitutional chamber (SC) to re-open the case of the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, a woman and her child at the Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA) Jesuit university by an elite army unit.... Read More

* Costa Rica’s national statistics institute (Inec) has released its latest figures on unemployment, which show that the unemployment rate totalled 14.4% in the September-November 2021 rolling quarter.... Read More

On 6 January, an SUV filled with ten dead bodies was found outside the state government building in Zacatecas, the capital of the eponymous state, in central Mexico.  ... Read More

* The Mexican government has formally requested the establishment of a panel to resolve the differences of interpretation with the US over rules of origin requirements for the automotive industry under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on regional trade.... Read More

*Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest figures on industrial manufacturing and construction, which show that both activities grew year-on-year in November although monthly growth was minimal.... Read More