Brazil’s central bank raised its 2023 economic growth forecast while warning of a looming drop-off in activity next year as monetary policy remains tight, Bloomberg News reported. The bank forecasts gross domestic product will expand 2.9% this year, more than the 2% growth estimate from June, according to its quarterly inflation report published on Thursday. It sees activity growing 1.8% next year. By comparison, analysts surveyed by the monetary authority have raised their GDP estimates to 2.92% for 2023 and 1.5% in 2024.
Read more
A public spending boom and generous tax cuts carried out by Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who’s also running for president in the October election, pose new setbacks to the country’s $44 billion program with the International Monetary Fund, according to the Washington-based lender, Bloomberg News reported. “The recently adopted policy measures and announcements add to Argentina’s challenges,” IMF chief spokesperson Julie Kozack said at a press conference in Washington Thursday.
Read more
Brazil's central bank governor Roberto Campos Neto on Wednesday said policymakers are aiming to tighten cryptocurrency regulation and subject brokerages to their supervision, Reuters reported. Speaking during a hearing in Congress, Campos Neto emphasized regulators will scrutinize the backing of cryptocurrencies and associated activities, given the significant surge in cryptocurrency imports by Brazilians. Data released by the central bank this week revealed cryptocurrency imports jumped by 44.2% from January to August compared to the same period last year, totaling $7.4 billion.
Read more
Brazil's annual inflation accelerated in mid-September to 5.00%, data from statistics agency IBGE showed on Tuesday, coming in line with market expectations as the central bank signals it will maintain its current pace of monetary easing, Reuters reported. Analysts believe inflation in Latin America's largest economy has already reached its lowest for the year while remaining relatively under control, allowing the monetary authority to keep lowering borrowing costs.
Read more
Burford Capital said it would be seeking court permission to begin attaching Argentine assets within weeks to satisfy a $16 billion judgment, saying it was clear that the South American nation had “no intention” of paying, Bloomberg News reported. In a letter Friday to US District Judge Loretta Preska in New York, London-based Burford said it intended to ask her to set Oct. 16 as the date it can begin efforts to execute the judgment and attach assets. Preska earlier this month ordered Argentina to pay the award over its 2012 expropriation of foreign investment in oil company YPF SA.
Latin America’s largest water utility is getting ready for a public share sale next year that would see Sao Paulo’s state government give up control, according to the company’s chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. Cia. de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo, known as Sabesp, has a “potential window” for the equity offering starting in mid-May, after Sabesp publishes its first-quarter financial results, and running until mid-August, Andre Salcedo said in an interview.
Read more
Argentina's economy shrank 4.9% in the second-quarter of 2023 versus the year-ago period, the country's statistics agency said on Tuesday, slightly missing analysts' forecast of a 4.8% contraction and posting the first break in growth for years, Reuters reported. Tuesday's result marks the first time the country's growth was in the red since 2020. The agricultural sector registered the highest drop, with a 40.2% decrease compared to the same period the previous year.
Read more
Brazil’s development bank BNDES plans to provide 20 billion reais ($4.1 billion) in funds for infrastructure projects this year, two-thirds more than in 2022 and mostly through the purchase of local debt issued by companies that invest in the sector, Bloomberg News reported. The strategy is aimed at encouraging private investors to join in the purchase of infrastructure bonds, increasing the impact of financing by BNDES, according to Felipe Borim Villen, deputy managing director of infrastructure at the bank.
Read more
The Brazilian economy kicked off the third quarter with a stronger-than-expected pace, bolstering recent upward revisions in the country's GDP growth forecast for 2023, Reuters reported. The IBC-Br economic activity index, a key predictor of gross domestic product, registered seasonally adjusted growth of 0.44% in July from June, surpassing the median forecast of a 0.3% expansion in a Reuters poll of economists. According to the central bank, the IBC-Br was up 0.66% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis from July 2022 and marked a rise of 3.12% in the 12 months.
Read more
Diego Labat, Uruguay's central bank chief, is sitting pretty. Inflation is at the lowest level in nearly two decades, the currency is one of the region's strongest, and the country is leading a regional pivot towards interest rate easing, Reuters reported. That's a sharp contrast to just across the Rio de La Plata estuary in Buenos Aires, where inflation hit 124% in August, the highest since 1991, capital controls are barely holding back a fall in the currency, and net reserve levels are in the red.
Read more