Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said on Monday the country's economy was likely to grow about 2.5% this year after being hit by the Omicron wave of the coronavirus pandemic, in a blow to President Andres Manuel Lopez, Reuters reported. Mexico's economy contracted for a second straight quarter in the last three-month period of 2021, putting it in a technical recession and confirming growth had lost momentum. Overall the economy expanded 5.0% for full-year 2021 after shrinking 8.5% in 2020 in Mexico's worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The United States and Japan are set to announce a deal to grant Japanese steelmakers relief from Trump-era U.S. tariffs for a limited amount of steel imports, Reuters reported. Anonymous sources said that it will allow about 1.25 million metric tonnes into the United States duty-free, with volumes above that level subject to the 25% "Section 232" national security tariffs.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said on Wednesday there was uncertainty about how quickly inflation would come back down due to the unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has helped drive up prices, Reuters reported. Macklem, speaking to the Senate banking committee, reiterated that interest rates would have to start going up this year to tackle inflation, which is currently 4.8%, more than double the central bank's 2% target. "There is some uncertainty about how quickly inflation will come down because we've never experienced a pandemic like this before," he said.

Latam Airlines Group SA can send its $5.4 billion bankruptcy-exit plan to creditors for a vote, a judge said Tuesday, handing the airline a partial victory over debtholders who want to pursue alternatives, including a takeover by rival Azul SA, Bloomberg News reported. The decision means the company can seek final court approval for its reorganization plan in April and possibly exit bankruptcy several months after that, should it get support from securities regulators in Chile, where Latam is based.

Jamaica will roll out its digital currency across the country in the first quarter of this year as part of an effort to lower transaction costs and provide financial services to citizens who do not use banks, a central bank official told Reuters. The Bank of Jamaica said in December that it completed a pilot project that issued 230 million Jamaican dollars (US$1.5 million) of the new currency, an effort that comes on the heels of a similar project launched by a group of Eastern Caribbean nations.

Aeromexico on Friday won court approval of its restructuring plan after the airline struck a deal with the remaining holdouts among its creditors, clearing the way for it to emerge from bankruptcy with new controlling shareholders, Reuters reported. "I could not be more pleased to tell you the plan of reorganization is confirmed," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman said soon after the agreement to pay a settlement to the creditors was announced during a court hearing.

Mexican consumer lender Credito Real S.A. B. de C.V. is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to arrange rescue financing to pay down a 170 million Swiss franc ($180 million) bond coming due next month, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Credito Real, which ranks as Mexico’s largest nonbank lender, has asked Goldman Sachs to seek potential sources of new financing secured by the company’s assets to cover the coming maturity and avoid default, the people said.

A company that operates a P.E.I. fish hatchery and grow-out facility has filed for bankruptcy, owing millions of dollars to multiple levels of government. According to bankruptcy trustee MNP Ltd., Halibut PEI voluntarily filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 14, CBC.ca reported. The company owes $9.5 million to its creditors, including the P.E.I. government, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Atlantic Fisheries Fund.

Mexico's Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio said on Friday that talk of a "technical recession" in the country doesn't take into account coronavirus-related economic volatility and global supply chain issues, Reuters reported. Mexico's economy, the second-largest in Latin America, likely shrank 0.2% in December compared with the same month a year earlier, a preliminary official estimate showed last week, stirring concerns the country may have slipped into a recession in the second half of 2021.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) board on Friday said it continued to have strong engagement with El Salvador and that no determination had been made on whether it could lend to the country which has made the cryptocurrency bitcoin legal tender, Reuters reported. El Salvador became in September the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar. The IMF has pressed El Salvador to backtrack on the bitcoin move, citing financial, economic and legal concerns.