Chile’s central bank said there’s no evidence that the domestic inflation slowdown had been consolidated, even as headline consumer price and consumption readings head in the right direction, Bloomberg News reported. The only plausible monetary policy option was to keep rates unchanged at an over two-decade high of 11.25%, central bankers wrote in the minutes to their May 12 decision. The risks associated with scenarios of higher inflationary pressures were “particularly complex and costly,” they wrote.
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Chile
Chile’s economy picked up at the start of the year, growing at the fastest pace since the end of 2021 amid an expansion in service industries, the central bank said, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product grew 0.8% in the first quarter from the prior three months and fell 0.6% from a year before. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected 1% expansion quarter-on-quarter and a 0.9% contraction year-on-year. Fourth-quarter growth was revised to 0.2% quarter-on-quarter from 0.1%.
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Chile signed a 15-year credit line for $1 billion with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to promote the development of small and medium-sized companies, the Ministry of Finance reported on Sunday, Reuters reported. The Washington, D.C.-based agency had approved the plan in early December to "increase productivity and promote sustainable development." Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel signed the agreement for the establishment of a conditional credit line for investment projects (CCLIP) during an annual IDB meeting in Panama.
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Latin America’s largest airline is planning a return to US capital markets after cutting nearly $4 billion of debt during a years-long restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. Latam Airlines Group SA will seek to re-list its American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange this year after they were suspended during the bankruptcy, Chief Financial Officer Ramiro Alfonsín said in a video interview. It also expects to return to international bond markets next year, he said.
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Chile's central bank maintained its benchmark interest rate at 11.25% on Thursday, as expected, in a unanimous decision by its governing board, with the bank saying inflation remains high and related risks persist, Reuters reported. The central bank embarked on an aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle in July 2021 to reign in spiraling inflation and has increased the rate by a 1,075 basis points since then to its current level. The rate has remained at 11.25% since October.
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LATAM Airlines Group and the Union of LATAM Pilots (SPL) in Chile reached an agreement on Wednesday, cooling off the possibility of a strike which was set to begin on Thursday, the Union said in a statement, Simple Flying reported. Having recently emerged from its chapter 11 bankruptcy process, LATAM quickly faced a new challenge, the possibility of an industrial action taken by its team of pilots. On Nov. 2, with a 99% overwhelming majority, the pilots in the company voted in favor of a strike.
Latam Airlines and its main pilots’ union in Chile have reached an agreement staving off a threatened strike, the union said in a statement on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The Union of Latam Pilots (SPL), which says it represents 313 of the airline's nearly 500 pilots, voted almost unanimously last week to begin a strike, leaving a window for a mediation process mandated by Chilean law.
LATAM Airlines, South America's largest carrier, reported on Tuesday a narrower third-quarter net loss of $296 million, the company said in a statement, partly hit by high fuel prices, Reuters reported. The Chile-based airline's quarterly loss this year compares to a $694 million loss during the same three-month period last year. LATAM's revenue during the July to September period rose 97% to total $2.587 billion compared to the third quarter last year. The airline, created by the 2012 merger of Chile's LAN with Brazilian rival TAM, operates units in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
The largest pilots union of Latam Airlines in Chile voted to strike on Wednesday, a day before the company said it was planning on concluding its exit from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The Union of Latam Pilots (SPL) said it represents 313 of Latam Airlines's approximately 500 pilots and that 99% of its members voted to approve the strike.
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LATAM Airlines, the biggest carrier in Latin America, said it plans to conclude its exit from bankruptcy on Nov. 3, Reuters reported. "This process will allow the group to emerge more agile, with a more competitive cost structure, adequate liquidity to face the future, with approximately $10.3 billion in equity, and close to $6.9 billion in debt," the company said in a statement late on Friday. LATAM filed for chapter 11 in 2020 after airline travel was hammered during the pandemic, and it won court approval that June.
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