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.
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Colombia's civil aviation authority on Tuesday formally opposed a planned merger between Avianca, the country's flag carrier, and budget airline Viva, saying the transaction represented a risk to competition, Reuters reported. Avianca and Viva in April signed a deal to merge into one group and unify their economic rights as part of a strategy to strengthen both airlines after the global aviation industry was battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The civil aviation authority's decision tentatively blocks the merger, but it said the airlines can appeal.
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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Argentina's newly struck deal with the Paris Club lenders will bring some $248 million in debt relief for the embattled South American nation and push repayments back as far as 2028, according to a document shared with Reuters by officials. The country's government said earlier on Friday it had reached a deal to restructure the nearly $2 billion it owes the Paris Club of creditors, which counts the United States, Japan and Germany among its members. Repayments would start in December this year and continue until late 2028, the document showed.
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Colombia’s central bank ignored complaints from President Gustavo Petro and raised interest rates to the highest level in more than two decades, while also deciding against intervention in the currency market, Bloomberg News reported. The bank lifted its benchmark rate by one percentage point to 11%, after the peso plunged and foreign investors dumped the nation’s bonds. The unanimous decision, which was in line with expectations, extends the steepest series of interest rate increases since the bank started inflation targeting at the end of the 1990s.
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Brazil's consumer prices returned to positive territory in the month to mid-October after two consecutive drops, government statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday, ahead of a key central bank policy-setting meeting, Reuters reported. The IPCA-15 consumer price index came in ahead of expectations with a 0.16% increase, but economists do not expect the central bank to resume interest rate hikes at its meeting on Wednesday. In September, the Copom monetary policy committee chose to keep interest rates unchanged at 13.75%, pausing an aggressive monetary tightening cycle even as U.S.
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Colombia's central bank board will raise the benchmark interest rate at its meeting next week, which is likely its penultimate increase in a cycle meant to counteract inflation, analysts said in a poll on Friday, Reuters reported. Twelve of 14 analysts surveyed said the seven-member board will increase borrowing costs by 100 basis points to 11%, while one analyst predicted a 75 basis point raise and another projected a 50 basis points uptick. If the majority prediction is met, it would be the highest rate since July 2001.
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Argentina’s next government needs to unwind currency controls and let the exchange rate trade freely, according to Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, one of the main opposition leaders seen as a likely presidential contender next year, Bloomberg News reported. “You have to aim for that,” Larreta said in an interview on the sidelines of the C40 World Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires. “What you have to do and how fast depends on the situation. You’d have to see how much foreign reserves the central bank has when you take over.
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Brazil's Nubank on Wednesday announced plans to release its own cryptocurrency as part of a new customer rewards program, Reuters reported. Warren Buffett-backed Nubank said in a statement the Nucoin digital currency is expected to be launched in the first half of 2023. Its goal is to offer customers benefits such as discounts and perks as they accumulate Nucoins.
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Economic activity in Brazil fell much more than expected in August, a central bank index showed on Monday, confirming expectations of a slowdown in the second half, Reuters reported. The IBC-Br economic activity index, considered a leading indicator of gross domestic product, fell a seasonally adjusted 1.13% in August from July, more than double the 0.5% drop expected by economists polled by Reuters. In August, activity services growth once again beat expectations. The sector accounts for about 70% of the Brazilian economy and has been vital in the recovery after the pandemic.
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