A Peruvian court on Tuesday sentenced ex-President Ollanta Humala to 15 years in prison for receiving illicit campaign funds from a Brazilian construction firm, making him the nation's latest former leader to head behind bars, Reuters reported. Humala and his wife were accused of receiving funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, in his successful 2011 election campaign. Humala's wife, Nadine Heredia, was also sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.
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Telefónica has sold its Peruvian subsidiary, Telefónica del Perú, to Argentine company Integra Tec International for approximately US$ 992,000, marking its exit from the Andean country after three decades, MercoPress reported. The sale, part of Telefónica's strategy to reduce Latin American exposure, follows divestments in Argentina and Colombia. Telefónica del Perú, holding 99.3% of shares, faced a financial crisis, entering bankruptcy proceedings in February.
The World Bank is poised to announce a $12 billion financing package for Argentina on Friday, supplementing the International Monetary Fund's expected approval of a $20 billion Argentina loan deal, a source with knowledge of the plan said, Reuters reported. The Inter-American Development Bank also is expected to announce its own Argentina financing package, a second source said after Argentina's central bank announced on Friday that it will ease its foreign exchange market controls, allowing the peso to freely fluctuate within a moving band of between 1,000 and 1,400 pesos per dollar.
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Argentina's mortgage market, for years almost non-existent due to spiraling triple-digit inflation and high borrowing costs, is starting to show signs of coming back to life under the pro-market reforms of libertarian President Javier Milei, Reuters reported. Monthly new mortgages in Buenos Aires province, home to 40% of the country's population, hit the highest level since 2018 at the start of the year, data from the local college of notaries show. Numbers were up nearly 500% in February year-on-year.
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Government-controlled Banco de Brasilia (BRB) only agreed to acquire the healthiest and most strategically relevant assets from fellow lender Banco Master after months of negotiations, BRB CEO Paulo Henrique Costa said in a Tuesday interview, Reuters reported. The agreement, announced on Friday and subject to review by the central bank, is still under due diligence that could eventually bring down the negotiated price of 2 billion reais ($350 million), to be paid over up to six years, he added.
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Argentina and the International Monetary Fund may be on the home stretch over a $20 billion new program, but the deal has so far failed to dispel traders' anxiety and a haze of uncertainty around the outlook for the country's peso currency, Reuters reported. The South American nation, under libertarian President Javier Milei, is trying to rebuild investor confidence and bolster depleted foreign currency reserves after years of overspending that left the grains producer locked out of global markets and battling to stabilize its finances.
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Nearly one-fifth of the population of San Pedro, Argentina about 16,000 people, would invest in RainbowEx, piling tens of millions of dollars into the cryptocurrency exchange. Joining RainbowEx was easy, even for crypto newbies. First, they downloaded the app from a website — it never appeared on Apple or Google’s app stores. Then, they visited one of the local private lending institutions called financieras. A clerk there would convert Argentine pesos into Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar.
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Argentina’s future program with the International Monetary Fund will be for $20 billion, while executive board approval could take weeks, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said at a conference Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. Caputo stopped short of announcing a formal staff-level agreement, but it’s the most concrete detail of the program after several months of negotiations between the IMF and President Javier Milei’s administration.
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Brazil’s central bank lowered its economic growth forecast for this year, signaling further interest rate hikes will weigh on activity as policymakers fight inflation that’s speeding up further above target, Bloomberg News reported. The bank expects gross domestic product to expand 1.9% this year, down from the previous of estimate of 2.1%, according to its monetary policy report published Thursday. By comparison, analysts surveyed by the monetary authority see 1.98% growth in 2025.
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