Filtered by Subscriptions: Latin America Economics Use setting Latin America Economics
The overnight strikes by Israel on Iran mark a major escalation in the conflict in the region and, with the oil market tighter than it was a few months ago, the risks to oil prices look more balanced than we’d previously thought (rather than skewed to the …
13th June 2025
Colombia’s fiscal problems have returned to the spotlight amid rumours that the government will suspend the fiscal rule. This has triggered a sell-off in the bond market, but it doesn’t look like the deterioration in the fiscal situation has been fully …
10th June 2025
Brazil’s monetary tightening cycle is very close to being (or may already be) over, and attention is quickly turning to when and how far Copom will lower interest rates. Historically, the market has tended to underestimate how far rates are lowered – and …
4th June 2025
In this Update, we answer several key questions about how the US Court of International Trade (CIT) tariff ruling might affect the US and other economies. The outlook may now rest on the decision of the Republican-stacked Supreme Court. The upside risks …
29th May 2025
The low public support for (left-wing) incumbents in many of Latin America’s largest economies, taken together with weak public finances, suggests that the wave of the upcoming elections could act as a catalyst for a rebound in (beaten up) financial …
21st May 2025
The proposed 5% US tax on remittance outflows would have a particularly large negative impact on Central American economies such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Remittance flows could plausibly drop by around 1% of GDP in these countries. And …
The recent climbdown has left the effective US tariff rate on the rest of the world at around 15% as opposed to the 27% which was threatened at the height of this year’s trade war. While this is still the highest since the 1930s, it is unlikely to cause a …
13th May 2025
The latest survey data out of Mexico have been woeful and, while high-frequency hard data suggest that activity hasn’t fared as badly as might have been feared, the bigger picture is that the economy is very weak. This is likely to weigh heavily on …
Global Trade Stress Monitor …
The US and China have each suspended for 90 days all but 10% of their Liberation Day tariffs and cancelled other retaliatory tariffs. This is a substantial de-escalation. However, the US still has much higher tariffs on China than on other countries and …
12th May 2025
Brazil’s current account deficit has widened sharply over the past twelve months and we think it could reach 4.0-4.5% of GDP over the next couple of years. This leaves the real vulnerable to renewed falls, especially if concerns about the health of the …
8th May 2025
Mexico is well positioned to benefit if punitive US tariffs on China prompt a shift in US import demand towards other EMs, as seems likely, although its ability to ramp up exports in the near term will be constrained by some capacity constraints, …
28th April 2025
The IMF’s decision to pause Colombia’s access to its flexible credit line is not particularly concerning given the country’s robust external position, but the Fund has shone the spotlight back onto the country’s fiscal problems. With general elections …
Argentina’s latest IMF programme and the move to partially dismantle some capital controls and liberalise the exchange rate suggests policymakers are moving more quickly than we’d anticipated to restore macro orthodoxy. The parameters of the exchange rate …
14th April 2025
President Trump’s trade war has created material downside risks for the global economy. Our forecasts assume that tariffs on most countries outside China will stay at 10% and retaliation by other governments will be moderate. In this scenario, global GDP …
10th April 2025
The troubles at Brazilian bank Banco Master that have grabbed the headlines recently seem to be contained and, by most measures, the banking sector as a whole appears to be in good shape. But there has been a sharp run-up in lending to households over the …
We hosted two online Drop-In sessions on 3 rd April to discuss the fallout from President Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement. (See a recording here .) This Update contains answers to some of the questions that we received and links to several more …
3rd April 2025
Mexico got off lightly from the tariffs announced by President Trump yesterday and the overall hit to the economy from US trade measures may be a bit smaller than we’d initially thought. Even so, we think growth will be very modest this year, perhaps just …
The blowout in Mexico’s budget deficit to its largest level since the 1980s last year means that the government has little scope to offset the hit to the economy from US tariffs. There’ll probably be some slippage on the government’s plans to rein in the …
31st March 2025
The US would have to exert a lot of pressure to coerce most major countries into putting large tariffs on goods from China . Curtailing trade with China would have an economic cost and even countries that have closer economic ties with the US would still …
In this Update, we answer several key questions about how the announced 25% tariffs on US imports of autos and parts might affect the global economy and the US itself. Mexico, Slovakia and Korea are most exposed with up to 1.6% of GDP at risk. But the …
27th March 2025
Brazil’s inflation outlook appears increasingly worrying, and the headline rate is likely to hit around 6% y/y by year-end, which is a bit higher than most expect. That’s likely to trigger a few more rate hikes in the coming months, taking the Selic rate …
20th March 2025
Peru’s economy grew strongly in 2024 but we think that a combination of domestic and external headwinds will cause growth to slow by more than most expect over the coming years. But it is still likely to outperform most other major Latin American …
17th March 2025
The vote on Brazil’s 2025 budget (likely next week) will put renewed attention on whether the primary deficit will be kept low enough to comply with the government’s fiscal rules. But the key point is that Brazil’s weak public debt dynamics owe more to …
13th March 2025
The announcement by Brazil’s government that it will cut import tariff rates to zero for several food products underscores the government’s concerns about rising inflation and its own falling popularity. While we doubt the measures will do much to stop …
10th March 2025
The 25% tariff on all US imports from Mexico that came into force today will, if it stays in place, knock Mexico’s economy into recession in the coming quarters. A contraction in GDP this year of 1% would be plausible. And unlike Canada and China (also …
4th March 2025
The events of the past two weeks have called into question whether the US is severing ties not just with adversaries such as China but also allies, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union. This would radically alter the shape of the fractured …
President Donald Trump’s has claimed that there is “no room left’ for Canada and Mexico to avoid the imposition of 25% across-the-board tariffs at midnight tonight and he has reportedly signed a separate Executive Order raising the tariff rate on Chinese …
3rd March 2025
Argentina’s President Javier Milei has pledged to remove capital controls but we think that a major change in Argentina’s exchange rate setting before the mid-term elections in October is unlikely. And even then, our sense is that the removal of capital …
26th February 2025
Colombia’s economy strengthened at the end of last year, with GDP expanding at its fastest pace in more than two years. But the combination of tight fiscal and monetary policy, alongside lower oil prices, means that growth is likely to disappoint in 2025. …
18th February 2025
Ecuador’s presidential election on Sunday is set to be a tight race, with a second round run-off in April likely to be needed to separate the two leading candidates. Among the next government’s multiple challenges are improving the security situation and …
6th February 2025
President Donald Trump’s eleventh-hour decision to delay the 25% tariffs he had threatened to impose on Canada and Mexico is a good reminder of his unpredictable nature. We don’t think Trump’s U-turn necessarily means he’s bluffing about other tariffs – …
5th February 2025
Trump hits Canada, China & Mexico with tariffs President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff on China from this coming Tuesday, (with the only partial exemption for Canadian energy imports that …
2nd February 2025
This Update answers some key questions about the likely implications of the US imposing 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico. Our current forecasts are based on the assumption of a 10% universal tariff and hence growing speculation about more aggressive …
27th January 2025
We held an online briefing yesterday on Mexico’s economy and how it may be impacted by the Trump administration. (Listen to the on-demand recording here .) This Update answers some the key questions that came up. How do you interpret the threatened 25% …
23rd January 2025
President Trump’s threats to retake ownership of the Panama Canal reflects its importance for US trade and the country’s strategic interests. It’s possible that these threats are simply another attempt to gain concessions, such as lower fees charged to …
The “America First Trade Policy” White House memorandum makes it clear that tariffs are coming, although we still have little clarity on the timing. There are some signs that a universal tariff could come later than in the second quarter as we have …
21st January 2025
Mexico is once again bracing for trade protectionism in the US. And while it staved off tariffs in the first round of the trade war, on balance we don’t think it’s in as strong a negotiating position this time round. We’ve written extensively on what a …
14th January 2025
The Brazilian real plunged in 2024, due to fiscal risks. While we suspect that further piecemeal austerity measures will prevent another leg down in the currency, with investors’ fiscal fears unlikely to be fully addressed and Brazil’s terms of trade set …
13th January 2025
Brazil’s recent period of rapid growth is likely to come an end this year. Sovereign debt concerns will almost certainly rumble on, but further piecemeal austerity measures will probably prevent another rise in bond yields or leg down for the real. In a …
8th January 2025
The Cold War was defined by geopolitical blocs – the Soviet or Eastern bloc against the Western bloc. Geopolitics retreated with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The period from the early-1990s to the early-2010s was instead an era of globalisation: most …
7th January 2025
The Brazilian central bank’s aggressive interest rate hike yesterday may help ease concerns that fiscal dominance will take hold. But we think that measures to keep government debt servicing costs artificially low will ultimately form part of the solution …
12th December 2024
We held an online session on US import tariffs on 26th November. (See a recording here ). In this Update we answer the questions we were most asked. What are Trump’s motives for threatening tariffs and will he follow through? Trump has spoken about using …
29th November 2024
The fiscal tightening measures announced by Brazil’s finance minister late yesterday failed to live up to expectations and reinforce the idea that political commitment to stabilising the public finances is lacking. One consequence is that the central …
28th November 2024
Latin American (LatAm) markets have been generally resilient in the aftermath of the US election, possibly because investors were already pessimistic about the region’s prospects. But we think domestic and global headwinds will translate into LatAm assets …
26th November 2024
President-elect Donald Trump’s first threatened tariffs since the election are designed to extract concessions on drug trafficking and illegal border crossings, which means it may be possible for the countries targeted – Canada, Mexico and China – to head …
A year ago, we published an in-depth report arguing that the calm prevailing at the time around sovereign debt risks in Latin America wouldn’t last and that public debt dynamics would deteriorate. While there have been some positive stories (Argentina, to …
20th November 2024
The latest data suggest that Colombia and Chile underperformed Peru’s economy in Q3. Looking ahead, we think that lower prices for key commodity exports combined with relatively tight fiscal stances will offset any the favourable effect from looser …
19th November 2024
US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to curb immigration and undertake a mass deportation of undocumented migrants could boost labour supply in countries that are the source of migrants. But there could be social and fiscal costs, as well as lower …
18th November 2024
We think investors are now overestimating how tight Brazil’s central bank will keep policy over the coming years, so we expect local-currency bond yields there to fall by end-2025. Still, fiscal concerns may keep yields high by past standards and we …
14th November 2024
