LatinNews Daily - 08 December 2022

On 7 December Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested following his attempt to shut down congress and install a “government of exception”, with his vice president, Dina Boluarte, sworn in as Peru’s new president.... Read More

*Peru’s central bank (BCRP) has raised its benchmark interest rate 25 basis points to 7.5% in response to continued high inflation. In a statement explaining the increase, the 17th consecutive hike, the BCRP noted that annual inflation rose to 8.45% in November up from 8.28% in October which remains significantly higher than the bank’s target range of 1-3%.... Read More

On 7 December, Brazil’s senate approved the bill for a constitutional amendment (PEC) that will allow the future government of leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to spend beyond the constitutional spending cap in 2023 and 2024.... Read More

* Brazil’s central bank (BCB) has held the country’s benchmark interest rate at 13.75%, noting that “the global environment remains adverse and volatile, marked by prospects of below-potential global growth for next year, high volatility of financial assets and continued pressure from the inflationary environment.” Alluding to current market uncertainty over the fiscal plans of leftist President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the BCB statement also highlighted “heightened uncertainty about the country’s future fiscal framework and additional fiscal stimuli”.... Read More

On 7 December Guatemala’s former president Otto Pérez Molina (2012-2015) and his former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, were convicted on fraud and conspiracy counts, each receiving a 16-year prison sentence.... Read More

* International credit ratings agency Fitch has forecast that the Dominican Republic’s GDP will grow 4.8% in 2022, which it says reflects “a strong carryover effect from 2021 and intra-year momentum that has moderated but been resilient to global shocks”.... Read More

On 7 December, United Nations (UN) experts raised concerns about President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s flagship Tren Maya railway project in Mexico. ... Read More

*Mexico’s economy minister, Raquel Buenrostro, has been cited by the local and international media as saying that Mexico has offered to extend a deadline to ban imports of genetically modified yellow corn until 2025 as per a presidential decree.... Read More

On 7 December, Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric urged political parties to reach a consensus on establishing a new constitutional process.... Read More

*Chile’s national statistics institute (INE) has released new figures which show monthly inflation in November was 1%, up from 0.5% in October while the 12-month rate was 13.3%, up from 12.8% in October.... Read More