Latin American market data, analysis and forecasts from Business Monitor International, the trusted source for business information and intelligence on global emerging markets.
Latin America Monitor (LAM) provides political risk analysis, economic forecasts and business information for trade & industry across the emerging Latin American economies of the Andean, Brazil, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico and the Southern Cone. Latin America Monitor is available as six printed, regional, monthly newsletters. Subscribers also receive password access to a searchable 24-month archive of Latin America Monitor articles and data online plus the ability to download PDFs of current and back issues of Latin America Monitor.
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Economy / Colombia
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe again looks to be mending relations with regional leaders. While attending the Rio Summit in Cancun, Mexico, the Colombian leader had a private meeting with his Ecuadorean counterpart Rafael Correa, with both sides setting out a 'route map' to improve bilateral relations. More significant is the attempt to end the diplomatic dispute with neighbouring...
2010-03-08Economy / Colombia
Colombia's foreign reserves hit US$25.0bn at end-2009, and look set to continue rising as the monetary authorities extend US dollar purchases to stem peso strength. If FDI inflows...
2010-03-08Economy / Ecuador
BMI View: Increased foreign oil investment into Ecuador will be insufficient to cover the projected US$1.6bn fiscal shortfall in 2010. Lack of a united political opposition and...
2010-02-26Economy / Brazil
Notwithstanding the improvement in the general government fiscal balance in January, we continue to err on the side of caution with regards to the fiscal situation in Brazil this year, and therefore maintain a bearish bias towards Brazilian external debt. The yield on the benchmark US$ Global 2027 bond continues to trade near record low territory, having pushed back below the...
2010-03-04Economy / Brazil
Industrial production in Brazil broke a two-month spell of negative month-on-month (m-o-m) growth in January, rising by 1.1% m-o-m. Though slightly lower than the staggering 18.5%...
2010-03-04Economy / Brazil
Brazil's economic calendar kicked 2010 off to a good start, with signs of a robust recovery now appearing across the majority of sectors in the economy. This has been reflected in...
2010-03-04Economy / Montserrat
We estimate Montserrat's economy to have contracted by 4.2% in 2009, its biggest economic downturn in a decade, as the global financial storm and faltering external demand weighed heavily on the East Caribbean island nation. According to figures from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), the Montserratian economy grew by a whopping 6.2% in 2008 as agriculture, construction...
2010-03-10Economy / Trinidad & Tobago
Former opposition United National Congress (UNC) leader Basdeo Panday has withheld his support for a move by the new leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar in parliament to file a motion of...
2010-03-09Economy / Dominica
Dominica's economy suffered severely as a result of the global economic headwinds that dominated 2009, as lower tourist visitor numbers, falling foreign direct investment inflows...
2010-03-09Economy / Honduras
We have revised up Honduras's short-term political risk ratings again this month, thanks to ongoing improvements on both the domestic and external fronts. One key area to benefit is 'policy continuity', with little threat on the horizon (either constitutional or otherwise) to President Porfirio Lobo Sosa's new administration. The 'security/external threat' component has also improved,...
2010-03-09Economy / Costa Rica
Costa Rica's public debt burden rose to 42.3% of GDP in 2009, up 2.9 percentage points on the previous year. Although considerably lower than the 60% of GDP level reached in 2004,...
2010-03-09Economy / Guatemala
Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom is backpedalling to restore confidence in the country's security institutions, after another series of high-level corruption allegations. On February...
2010-03-09Economy / Mexico
President Felipe Calderón's recent political expediency is likely responsible for resignation of Interior Minister Fernando Gómez Mont, who stepped down on February 10 in what is almost certainly a protest over an electoral pact with leftwing parties. Although Gómez Mont gave no reason for his departure, president of the ruling centre-right Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), César...
2010-03-05Economy / Mexico
Recent events in Mexico highlight the resilience of drug-fuelled violence in the face of government pressure. On February 23 around 20 gunmen raided a rural town in Southern Mexico,...
2010-03-05Economy / Mexico
Although 2009 was a tough year for Mexican exports, down 21.2% from 2008 levels, a fall in domestic demand saw imports contract by a more rapid 24.1%, which helped the economy register...
2010-03-05Economy / Uruguay
Industrial production growth came in below our estimated 5.0% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2009, notwithstanding the surge in the month-on-month reading in December. Measuring 2.6% y-o-y in December, industrial output in Uruguay came in below the 3.7% y-o-y rate registered in November. To us this signals a slight petering out of the bounce in industrial output towards the latter stages...
2010-03-08Economy / Uruguay
The new Uruguayan parliament, which assumed power on February 15, will be led by women in both the houses. Senator Luica Topolansky, President José Mujica's wife, took the oath of...
2010-03-08Political Risk / Uruguay
We maintain our view that President José Mujca's government will be slightly more socially orientated than his predecessor, while not necessarily opposed to broad policy continuity...
2010-03-08
