Brazil's economic activity fell for the second month in a row in May, a central bank index showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. The IBC-Br economic activity index, a leading indicator of gross domestic product, fell a seasonally adjusted 0.11% in May from the previous month. The April drop was revised to 0.64% from the previously reported 0.44%. Services activity rose much more than expected in May, while retail sales and industrial output growth came below market estimates.

Retail sales in Brazil grew more slowly than expected in May, with momentum decreasing amid persistent inflation, Reuters reported. The seasonally adjusted monthly increase of 0.1% in May from April was much less than the median forecast of 1.0% growth in a Reuters poll of economists. Government statistics agency IBGE said month-on-month sales were up in six of the eight categories surveyed in May, with the biggest impact coming from the 3.5% rise seen in pharmaceutical and medical goods. Sales fell 0.2% compared with May last year, IBGE said, versus a 2.6% increase forecast by economists.

Argentina's new economy minister Silvina Batakis said on Monday she would target cutting the country's high fiscal deficit, pledging "order and balance" in a bid to tame spiraling inflation, tumbling markets and growing pressure on the peso, Reuters reported. Batakis, who took over last week after an abrupt shake-up at the ministry, said Argentina will move toward positive interest rates, maintain plans to cut energy subsidies and stick with goals agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Peru's central bank expects monthly inflation in July to be lower than June's rate of 1.19%, a bank official said on Friday, offering some optimism after annual inflation rates hit a two-decade high in the copper-producing Andean nation, Reuters reported. Adrian Armas, the bank's manager of economic studies, added he expects monthly consumer prices to ease further in August, but noted that the impact of inflation would continue to be felt.

The International Monetary Fund's board of executive directors met on Friday to discuss the $44 billion Argentine programme for the first time since Silvina Batakis' appointment as economy minister, Reuters reported. In an informal meeting, the fund's staff said Batakis, who was sworn-in on Monday, was in the process of selecting her team, and once ready the first contacts between technical level IMF officials and new Argentine officials will be made.

Argentina's new economy minister must give her commitment to an IMF programme in order for the Paris Club of creditor nations to open talks on the South American country's debt, a Paris Club source said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Argentina was due to hold talks on Wednesday with the group of government creditors but had to pull out after the surprise weekend resignation of economy minister Martin Guzman days ahead of the trip to the French capital.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández appointed a little-known public servant as economy minister as his administration was facing soaring inflation and a weakening currency, which risk leading to social unrest, the Wall Street Journal reported. Silvina Batakis, an economist aligned with the ruling Peronist coalition’s far-left faction, took over the government’s top economic post Monday, two days after the surprise resignation of Martín Guzmán, a moderate aligned with the president. In past interviews and messages on her Twitter account, Ms.

Argentina’s new Economy Minister Silvina Batakis vowed to continue the government’s economic plans, in a bid to stem a market plunge following a weekend filled with political turmoil in the crisis-prone nation, Bloomberg News reported. In her first words since taking over for her predecessor Martin Guzman, who suddenly resigned Saturday, Batakis sought to reassure the public she wouldn’t overhaul economic policy. “I believe in a balanced budget,” Batakis told the press in Buenos Aires after being sworn in Monday evening, without taking questions.

Brazil's trade surplus reached $8.814 in June, official figures showed on Friday, below market expectations, Reuters reported. The reading was the second best for the month of June, after last year, since the figures were recorded in 1989. According to the Economy Ministry, exports grew 15.6% from June last year, to $32.7 billion, while imports jumped 33.7% to $23.9 billion. Global inflationary pressures have been boosting the value of tradable goods, amid rising food and energy prices and disrupted supply chains with the Russia-Ukraine war.

Colombia’s central bank delivered its biggest interest rate increase in over two decades, potentially putting itself on a collision course with President-elect Gustavo Petro, though it signaled the pace may not be kept in future decisions, Bloomberg News reported. The board unanimously raised rates by 150 basis points to 7.5%, Governor Leonardo Villar told reporters after a policy meeting Thursday. That’s the largest hike since the bank implemented its inflation-targeting strategy in 1999.