Argentina and China have formalized the expansion of a currency swap deal, allowing the South American country to increase its depleted foreign currency reserves, the Argentine central bank said on Sunday, Reuters reported. Argentina's government needs to rebuild reserves to cover trade costs and future debt repayments, and more reserves are a key objective of a major debt deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). President Alberto Fernandez announced the deal in November last year and said at the time it was worth $5 billion.
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Thousands of protesters supporting Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court in the capital Brasília Sunday, many calling for military intervention to remove Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftist leader who took office last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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U.S. managed services and cloud connectivity provider GTT, formerly called Global Telecom and Technology, has emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases after more than two years of corporate and financial restructuring, BNAmericas.com reported. The company, which maintains ethernet and IP sites in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City, first filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2021. "Over the past two years, we have concentrated relentlessly on transforming our business into a customer-focused, managed services provider with a culture of continuous improvement.
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Argentina's booming shale production in Vaca Muerta, a formation that rivals the U.S.'s Permian Basin, is at risk of running out of road as infrastructure to handle the oil and gas nears capacity, threatening to put the brakes on rapid growth, Reuters reported. The government is now racing to build out infrastructure: A major new gas pipeline is set to come online mid next year, and there are plans for new export terminals near Buenos Aires. The government is also working on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) law to send to Congress hoping to stimulate investment.
After a sharp drop in Latin American deals in 2022, bankers expect a slow recovery next year, led by M&A, Reuters reported. IPOs may take longer to resume, due to high global interest rates. The volume of M&A deals in Latin America fell 35% this year, to $86 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Roderick Greenlees, global investment banking head at Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4.SA), said the total value of M&A, although lower than the record year of 2021, was within historical range in the years before.
Ecuador has fully financed its budget for next year and is not looking for a new credit agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's economy minister said on Friday, adding that the government will maintain close ties with the fund, Reuters reported. The IMF this week concluded the latest review of its $6.5 billion financing agreement with Ecuador, opening the way for a final disbursement of $700 million to the South American nation.
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The Central Reserve Bank of Peru on Friday slightly reduced its economic growth projection for 2023 to 2.9% from 3.0%, according to a report published by the central bank, Reuters reported. Annual inflation in the copper-rich South American country is seen reaching 8.2% in 2022 before declining to 3% in 2023, the central bank said. It sees a 2022 fiscal deficit of 1.6% of gross domestic product, compared to a previous forecast of 1.9%, the report noted.
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Shares in Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA soared on Thursday after it revealed it was exiting bankruptcy protection, marking the closure of a restructuring process that lasted more than six years, Reuters reported. Oi filed in June 2016 for Brazil's then-biggest ever bankruptcy protection after running out of time to reorganize operations and restructure a multibillion-dollar debt amid a harsh recession in Latin America's largest economy.
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Brazil's incoming finance minister Fernando Haddad on Wednesday said fiscal expansion would not help the economy at the moment, downplaying market jitters on an expected spending boost starting next year, Reuters reported. "There are situations that demand countercyclical actions ... but we are not at a moment when fiscal expansion will help the economy," he said in an interview with TV channel GloboNews.
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Brazil's central bank aims to launch its digital currency in 2024 after a closed pilot program next year with financial institutions, bank president Roberto Campos Neto said on Tuesday, adding that the project had received international attention, Reuters reported. Campos Neto said that the design of the central bank's digital currency would encourage banks to tokenize their assets, with considerable efficiency gains.
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