Latin American Economy & Business - June 2013 (ISSN 1741-7430)

Incredulity was perhaps the main international reaction to the news on 11 June that the Nicaraguan government had awarded a virtually unknown Chinese company a 50-year concession to build a new canal across the Central American isthmus, at an estimated cost of US$40bn. A few weeks on, massive question marks remain, but some of the economic arguments are becoming clearer.