Latin American Economy & Business
Economy & Business - December 2019
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- Trade set to decline across Latin America
Andean Countries
- ECUADOR: Uphill struggle to revitalise its oil industry
- VENEZUELA: Teachers’ strikes continue to paralyse education
Highlights
- Economic Highlights
Brazil & Southern Cone
- PARAGUAY: Looking for an economic rebound
- BRAZIL: Tax reform on the way?
- CHILE: Political upheaval shakes economy
- ARGENTINA: Alberto takes his time
Central America & Caribbean
- NORTHERN TRIANGLE: Progress made on Comprehensive Development Plan
- COSTA RICA: Balancing act: budget cuts and economic growth
Mexico
- MEXICO: Controversial pension changes mooted
- MEXICO: Revised data show first-half recession
- MEXICO: Europe signs patents agreement with Mexico
A new report reveals a worrying panorama for trade in Latin America and the Caribbean, with both imports and exports set to decline this year.
Economy & Business - November 2019
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- WEF ranks Chile top in class for competitiveness, Haiti bottom
Andean Countries
- Why are medicines so expensive in the Andean region?
- Bolivia battles forest fires
- Regional labour markets and the rise of artificial intelligence
Highlights
- Economic Highlights
Brazil & Southern Cone
- Oil & Gas: Brazil’s big spill
- Oil & Gas: Brazil’s big auction
- Brazil solar projects get green light
- Uruguayan peso to take the strain
- Thin pensions in Chile
Mexico
- The IMF and Mexico: A positive report card
- Trade show drums up investment in value-added manufacturing
- Q3: Still teetering on the brink of recession
- Emission reduction plans confirmed but clean energy commitment unclear
Central America & Caribbean
- Worsening drought could cripple Central America
- Cuban economy feels the heat from tighter US sanctions
- Some Cuban retailers begin to sell goods priced in US-dollars
Chile ranks top in the region in the latest competitiveness report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), while Haiti comes in last.
Economy & Business - October 2019
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- Trade war to cause long-term uncertainty despite short-term benefits
Andean Countries
- The cannabis industry in Colombia: reaching new highs
- Deforestation a pressing issue across the Andean region
Brazil & Southern Cone
- Doubts over Mercosur
- Poverty on the increase in Argentina
- Next Uruguayan government to inherit fiscal trouble
- Brazil’s pension reform a done deal
- Argentina’s soya farmers see Chinese opportunity
Economic Highlights
- Economic Highlights
Mexico
- Mexico’s economy continues to struggle
- Authorities consider counter-cyclical fiscal fund
- Near-term efforts target tax dodgers
- Speculation about Pemex takeover of Zama offshore oilfield
Central America & Caribbean
- Guatemala’s child malnutrition epidemic hits hard
- AI will shake up Central America’s labour market
- Alvarado looks to private sector to improve Costa Rica’s infrastructure competitiveness
By the nature of its reliance on certain sectors, Latin America has long been at the mercy of shocks the global economy.
Economy & Business - September 2019
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- FDI up, but uneven
Andean Countries
- Colombia’s Duque struggles to make impact in first year
- Mining enters new phase in Ecuador
- A sustainable Bolivian export at risk
Brazil & Southern Cone
- Argentina’s triangle of uncertainty
- Shooting Brazil’s tourist goose?
- Brazil’s economic team rattled by CPMF debate
- Uruguay leading the charge on 5G
Economic Highlights
- Economic Highlights
Mexico
- Budget assumptions appear overly optimistic
- Falling inflation raises spectre of further interest rate cuts
- Pemex restructures debt in bid to fend off downgrade
- Fresh investment in Mexican fintech firms
Caribbean & Central America
- Emerging legislation to protect Central America’s human rights defenders
- Icefi warns on Central America’s tax revenue
Set against the backdrop of a slowing global economy and concentrated flows into the region, in August the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) released its annual report into the state of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region in 2018, highlighting a number of patterns and emerging trends.
Economy & Business - August 2019
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- Pace of inequality decline has slowed since 2014 in Andean region
Andean Countries
- Developing Bolivia’s lithium reserves – progress and challenges
- Responsible mining in Peru: where next?
Highlights
- Economic Highlights
Brazil & Southern Cone
- Breaking Petrobras’s gas market monopoly in Brazil
- Cencosud nets US$1.055bn in largest-ever IPO on Santiago de Chile exchange
- Metrobús scandal rumbles on in Paraguay
- Uruguay government to miss fiscal target
Mexico
- First stage of Veracruz port modernisation project implemented
- Pemex business plan met with scepticism
- Aeromexico faced by various competitors
- Mexico responds to poor second-quarter growth with new stimulus plan
Central America & Caribbean
- Costa Rica seeks to end emissions
- Demands for better frameworks for environment, human rights and mining in Central America
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (Eclac) Social Panorama 2018 report was published on 19 January, demonstrating indicator improvements in the reduction of monetary and income inequality across the region – alongside significant room for improvement.
Economy & Business - July 2019
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- Is investment the key to Central American Migration?
Andean Countries
- Changes to Ecuador’s communications law
- Bolivia to be the energy heart of South America?
Brazil & Southern Cone
- Argentina's Fernández pledges to take on IMF if elected
- EU-Mercosur deal – who gets what?
- Plan to turbo-charge infrastructure investment in Chile
Highlights
- Economic Highlights
Mexico
- Finance minister’s resignation raises questions over policy direction
- Recession Rumours
- US steel duties add to string of bad news
- Pipeline contract dispute could impact USMCA ratification
Central America & Caribbean
- Crisis continues to impact Nicaragua’s economy
- More of the same in Guatemala?
- Eclac report shows mixed findings on inequality and wealth distribution
Optimists, including Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, believe there is a simple solution to the North American migration crisis.
Latin American Economy & Business - June 2019
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- Infrastructure crucial for regional economic growth, says IDB
Andean Countries
- COLOMBIA: Ituango dam project faces yet more turbulent times
- VENEZUELA: Maduro’s adjustment to the grim reality
Mexico
- Disappointing first-quarter growth
- Immigration deal dodges US tariff threat – for now
- Business pledges to push up investment
- Despite tariffs, will BMW prosper in Mexico?
Highlights
- ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
Brazil & Southern Cone
- ARGENTINA: Argentina produces another unicorn, despite it all
- BRAZIL: Clear skies ahead for foreign airlines in domestic market
Central America & Caribbean
- EL SALVADOR: Bukele’s economic challenge
- HONDURAS: The IMF is still a bogeyman in Latin America
Various global shocks threaten to lower economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), but more, and better, investment in infrastructure could reduce their impact, according to a new report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Latin American Economy & Business - May 2019
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- Analysing the trade war scenario
Regional Economy Review
- Venezuela: Dollar shortages complicate efforts to ease capital controls
- Colombia: Rock-bottom coffee prices cause problems for farmers
- Mexico: OECD strikes a cautious note over 2019 prospects
- Economic Highlights
- Mexico: Resource nationalism: will it work?
Regional Business Review
- Chile: Chinese funds to see bullet train link Santiago and Valparaíso
- Central America: Private sector actors and anti-extortion efforts in Honduras and Guatemala
- Uruguay: Green light for UPM2
Trade tensions between the US and China have taken a turn for the worse.
Latin American Economy & Business - April 2019
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- Tighter sanctions on Venezuela make life tricky for Cuban government
Regional Economy Review
- Argentina: Economic crisis shows no signs of abating six months before election
- Region: Prosur offers tenuous promise of economic cooperation
- Bolivia: Good, but not that good?
- Region: Key to growth - good ports
- Panama: Nito’s recipe for growth
- ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
Regional Business Review
- Brazil: Rumo SA wins concession for North-South Trainline
- Mexico: Food self-sufficiency
- Mexico: Trump comments raise border worries
- Mexico: AMLO moderates his stance towards banks
The US government is ratcheting up the pressure on the Venezuelan administration led by President Nicolás Maduro, cracking down on those international trading relationships that are perceived to sustain the Maduro government.
Latin American Economy & Business - March 2019
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- Anatomy of a catastrophic blackout
Regional Economy Review
- Venezuela: Health crisis threatens regional economies
- Costa Rica: The race to a net zero-carbon economy
- ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
- Costa Rica: Alvarado’s beleaguered tax reform finally passes congress
- Brazil: Guedes warns against watered-down pension reform
- Region: Caribbean angered by EU blacklist
- Argentina: Economic outlook still cloudy
- Ecuador: New IMF agreement is finalised
Regional Business Review
- Chile: Electric bus deal heralds deeper relationship with China
- Colombia: ProColombia drums up extra investment
- Mexico: AMLO presses ahead with refinery project
Venezuela has just suffered one Latin America’s longest power cuts.
Latin American Economy & Business - February 2019
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- Which way for El Salvador’s economic policy?
Special Focus
- Region: Economic growth and family remittances to Central America in 2018
Regional Economy Review
- Cuba: Concerns mount on several fronts
- Ecuador: IMF confirms progress towards loan deal
- Brazil: Central bank holds interest rates again
- Brazil: Great Expectations
- Haiti: Government declares economic state of emergency
- ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
Regional Business Review
- Brazil: Few signs of change after latest mining disaster
- Region: How fast will EV take-up happen?
- Venezuela: Oil output plunges: what chances (eventual) recovery?
Nayib Bukele won the El Salvador elections on 3 February with a near-landslide (53.1% of the vote, more than his two main rivals combined).
Latin American Economy & Business - January 2019
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- Poverty contained?
Regional Economy Review
- Region: Brazil and Mexico to set the tone
- Mexico: The economics of oil theft
- Venezuela: Economic emergency measures – not much changes
- Argentina: Tackling the deficit-inflation dilemma
- Brazil: Brazil’s stock market booms, but will it last?
- Brazil: Bolsonaro tries to woo investors in Davos
- ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
- Brazil: Pension reform ideas start to circulate
- Guyana: Upcoming early election raises questions over future economic policy stance
- Ecuador: Oil production struggles
- Jamaica: Government targets development of stock market
Regional Business Review
- Bolivia: Navigating a “sea of gas”
- Region: Despite obstacles, e-commerce set to grow
- Chile: Copper set for modest improvement
- Brazil: Ex-admiral appointed chairman of state oil giant Petrobras
The end of the commodities boom in 2012-2013 triggered five years of slower growth in Latin America and prompted fears that poverty would once more increase.