Brazil's retail sales ended the first half of 2023 in positive territory when compared with the previous year but saw its expansion lose steam since January as high interest rates bite Latin America's largest economy, Reuters reported. Sales came in stable in June versus the previous month, government statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, below expectations of a 0.4% increase from economists polled by Reuters.

Chile’s annual inflation eased broadly in line with forecasts in July, a month that ended with the central bank delivering a larger-than-expected interest rate cut and indicating more big reductions to come, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 6.5% from a year prior, just above the 6.4% median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Monthly inflation stood at 0.4%, the national statistics institute reported on Tuesday. A closely-watched price gauge that excludes volatile items increased 8.5% in 12 months and 0.3% from June.

Brazil’s central bank said a faster pace of interest rate cuts is unlikely after it kicked off an easing cycle with a bigger-than-expected reduction of 50 basis points, Bloomberg News reported. “The Committee judges that there is low probability of an additional intensification in the pace of adjustment,” central bankers wrote in the minutes of their Aug. 1-2 meeting published on Tuesday.

Argentina’s peso fell to a record low in the parallel market as the nation braces for volatility ahead of key primary elections Sunday, Bloomberg News reported. The parallel exchange rate, known locally as the blue-chip swap, weakened as much as 1.7% to around 591 pesos per dollar Monday. Argentina’s official exchange rate dropped as much 1.4%, the most intraday since September 2020, bringing the gap between the two to more than 109%.

Brazil analysts cut their interest rate forecasts for this year and next after central bankers launched a monetary easing cycle with a bold half-a-percentage point cut last week, Bloomberg News reported. The benchmark Selic will fall to 11.75% by December, down from the prior estimate of 12%, according to a weekly central bank survey of economists published Monday. Analysts cut their key rate forecast for next year to 9%. Consumer price estimates for this year were left unchanged at 4.84%. Annual inflation will slow down to 3.88% in 2024 and 3.5% in 2025.

Venezuela’s opposition is finalizing an agreement with international creditors to extend a legal deadline on $60 billion of defaulted bonds, according to people with knowledge of the plan, Bloomberg News reported. The agreement being drafted by the opposition-led National Assembly — which is recognized in the US as the country’s legal representative — would suspend an upcoming statute of limitations on the debt. The offer could be approved by the National Assembly to present to bondholders as soon as this week, according to two of the people.

The owners of Chilean salmon farmer Nova Austral SA have presented a debt restructuring plan that would transfer ownership to creditors — but it may pit bondholders against a bank, Bloomberg News reported. Nova Austral, owned by Norwegian private equity firm Altor Equity Partners, presented the plan Wednesday at a Chilean court. It proposes a $487 million capital increase to turn part of its debt into stock. Norway’s DNB Bank ASA, one of its largest creditors, will receive five shares for every dollar it’s owed.

Colombia’s government is betting that its proposed public pension fund would reinvigorate investment flows in the local bond and equity markets, according to a top Finance Ministry official, Bloomberg News reported. The fund could be used to stimulate local markets while also facilitating access to long-term capital, José Roberto Acosta, the Finance Ministry’s Public Credit Director, said during an event at Bloomberg’s Bogotá office. “The Finance Ministry is concerned because the equity market is nonexistent, and the corporate bond market has also been dry for a long time,” Acosta said.

South American trade bloc Mercosur officials met on Tuesday to agree on their counterproposal to a European Union addendum on a long-awaited trade deal before meeting with EU negotiators in August in the hopes of closing the accord by year-end, Brazilian diplomats told Reuters. The four-nation Mercosur will seek to unify its positions on Wednesday and Thursday to respond to the EU on environmental additions the European body made to the trade deal, said Brazil's foreign ministry, where the talks are being held.

Chile's economic activity index dropped for the fifth month in a row in June, central bank data showed on Tuesday, underscoring some weakness in the world's largest copper producer just as the monetary authority starts cutting interest rates, Reuters reported.