Argentina's government will launch three measures in the coming days aimed at restricting imports and preserving the central bank's dwindling foreign currency reserves, a source told Reuters on Tuesday. The measures come as new data on Monday showed a trade deficit in July of $437 million, the second deficit in a row for Latin America's third-largest economy.
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Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa tapped veteran economist Gabriel Rubinstein as secretary of economic planning, to help craft the policy response to a currency slump and the fastest inflation in three decades, Bloomberg News reported. Rubinstein, who has long run his own consulting firm, served on the central bank’s board during the administration of late President Nestor Kirchner in 2005, among other government roles. Massa, a career politician, was sworn in earlier this month.
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Since 2011, Peruvians have lived under seven presidents and seen four ex-leaders detained or wanted on corruption allegations. Yet, in the same period Peru has held onto the unlikely title of the fastest growing major economy in Latin America, Reuters reported. That period of standout growth is set to end this year, an analysis of World Bank data and International Monetary Fund forecasts shows, with Colombia overtaking Peru. Slowing growth at the world's No.
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Chile's gross domestic product came in below expectations in the second quarter of 2022, central bank data showed on Thursday, leading economists to forecast a potential recession as pandemic-related stimulus is unwound, Reuters reported. The Andean country's economy grew 5.4% in the second quarter from a year earlier, but showed no growth from the previous three months in seasonally adjusted terms. The performance highlighted Chile's struggle to grow as the central bank aggressively tightens its monetary policy to tame soaring inflation, which reached a near three-decade high last month.
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Ecuador plans to pay off a debt it owes to French oil company Perenco at the end of this year and is open to a dialogue to determine how the payment should be made, the country's economy minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Ecuador is obliged to pay compensation to Perenco after the World Bank's International Centre for Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled the country had unlawfully ended a production-sharing agreement with Perenco and owed it $391 million including interest.
LATAM Airlines Group hopes to exit chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the last quarter of 2022 after securing the financing plus U.S. bankruptcy court and shareholder approval for its restructuring plan, says Group Chief Executive Officer Roberto Alvo, ch-aviation.com reported. "We have closed the second quarter with significant progress in our reorganization process under Chapter 11, and we hope to emerge from it during the last quarter of this year, Alvo said in a statement.
Brazil's consumer prices decreased more than expected in July, the country's statistics agency said on Tuesday, with the steepest drop ever on the benchmark IPCA index off the back of a string of anti-inflation measures by the government and central bank, Reuters reported. Prices in Latin America's largest economy fell by 0.68% last month, the IBGE statistics agency said. It was the lowest rate recorded since inflation measurements began in January 1980, IBGE said.
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Chile’s inflation hit a new 28-year high in July as food and transportation prices surged and the peso plunged to an all-time low, boosting pressure on the central bank to extend its aggressive interest rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Prices rose 13.1% from a year prior, more than the 13% median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Monthly inflation stood at 1.4%, the national statistics institute reported on Monday. Chile’s annual inflation rate has risen for 17 consecutive months amid several back-to-back shocks.
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Brazil's Economy Ministry expects the central government to post a primary surplus of 6 billion reais ($1.15 billion) this year, its first since 2013, according to internal estimates seen by Reuters. An official from the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity as the calculations are not public, called the estimate conservative because it considers 36 billion reais in extraordinary dividends in 2022.
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Argentina’s new Economy Minister Sergio Massa pledged to stop printing money that helps fuel runaway inflation, outlining his strategy to turn around the country’s deepening crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Massa rolled out his economic roadmap Wednesday night after being sworn in by President Alberto Fernandez as the third such minister in a month. Massa’s measures also focused on boosting exports, reducing the country’s fiscal deficit and increasing the central bank’s dwindling reserves.
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