Brazil’s next president will have to temporarily increase public spending to fight poverty and unemployment, according to a close economic adviser to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who leads opinion polls ahead of the October vote, Bloomberg News reported.

Local creditors of Latam Airlines Group SA are up in arms over a bankruptcy plan that would leave them with next to nothing even as holders of overseas bonds get almost all their money back, Bloomberg News reported. BancoEstado SA, a Santiago-based bank acting on behalf of local noteholders, has asked Latin America’s largest airline to improve its terms. The investors are threatening to sue if their demands aren’t meant, and contend that as a Chilean company, Latam should have filed for protection in local courts — instead of New York — that would have treated domestic creditors better.

Annual inflation in Brazil ended 2021 at a six-year high of 10.06%, government data showed on Tuesday, well above the upper limit of the central bank's year-end target range due to surging fuel and energy prices, Reuters reported. Despite slowing from the 12 months through November, when it reached 10.74%, the rise in the benchmark IPCA consumer price index was the most for a calendar year since 2015, said IBGE, while slightly exceeding the 9.97% median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

Argentine dollar bonds fell the most since September after Economy Minister Martin Guzman criticized spending cuts proposed by the International Monetary Fund, highlighting the difficulties ahead in securing a new agreement, Bloomberg News reported. Notes maturing in 2041 dropped 1 cent to 32.8 cents on the dollar, the biggest decline since Sept. 20, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Credit-default swaps widened the most in five weeks.

Argentine dollar bonds fell the most since September after Economy Minister Martin Guzman criticized spending cuts proposed by the International Monetary Fund, highlighting the difficulties ahead in securing a new agreement, Bloomberg News reported. Notes maturing in 2041 dropped 1 cent to 32.8 cents on the dollar, the biggest decline since Sept. 20, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Credit-default swaps widened the most in five weeks.

The São Paulo State Prosecutor's Office has requested that the Court block the assets of Sidnei Piva and declare the bankruptcy of Viação Itapemirim and ITA Transportes Aéreos, the Rio Times reported. The opinion, signed by the 5th Bankruptcy Prosecutor, Nilton Belli Filho, was submitted in the airline's judicial reorganization proceeding.

Paraguay will end 2021 with inflation of 6.8%, well above the official target and the highest rate since 2010, driven by food and fuel price increases, the central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Last year consumer prices in the country rose 2.2% and the official goal for 2021 was to end the year with a 4% rise. In 2010, inflation was 7.2%. Fuels soared almost 30%, beef 18% and flour 16% in 2021, according to a report from the bank, which did not register increases in consumer prices during the month of December.

Brazil's central bank has put the brakes on tougher regulations for the burgeoning fintech industry, withdrawing a draft proposal that had been set to be voted on last month by the government's top financial policy-making body, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. On Nov. 18, the central bank proposed that the regulations be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the National Monetary Council (CMN) but the new rules - which look to level the playing field between fintechs and traditional banks - were never voted on, the sources say.

Latam Airlines Group SA’s official low-ranking creditor group is unhappy with the Chilean carrier’s bankruptcy exit proposal, arguing a sale to rival Azul SA could leave its members much better off, Bloomberg News reported. In court papers filed on Wednesday, Santiago-based Latam’s unsecured creditor committee said the airline’s current reorganization plan is so unfair that it can’t win court approval. It flouts U.S. bankruptcy rules by favoring some evenly-ranked creditors over others and giving value to shareholders that don’t deserve it, lawyers for the group wrote.