Latin America Economics Update Currency sell-off sees Colombia overtake Argentina A depreciation of the Argentine peso has caused Colombia to overtake Argentina as the region’s third largest economy. Meanwhile, with a shortage of hard currency biting and the bolivar weakening... 24th March 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economic Outlook Growth to stay weak as commodity boom ends The world economy is recovering, but we expect growth in Latin America to continue to trudge along at a rate of 2.5-3.0% over the coming years. Sluggish growth will be due in part to less supportive... 21st March 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Colombia: strong growth in Q4, but weakness to come Colombian GDP growth beat expectations in the fourth quarter, but we doubt that the impressiveperformance can be sustained. Lower commodity prices, tighter global monetary conditions and weakercredit... 20th March 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Colombia: peso weakness unlikely to trigger interest rate hikes In contrast to several other emerging markets (EMs), Colombian policymakers have continued to refrain from taking steps to prevent the peso from weakening. As such, unless the currency begins to... 4th March 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Chart Pack Venezuela’s economic crisis deepens Venezuela’s government has responded to the eruption of violent protests in the country over the past month with yet another overhaul of its exchange rate system – the aim being to provide more... 28th February 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Calm returns to Lat. Am. markets Following the turmoil experienced during the first few weeks of this year, financial markets across much of Latin America have stabilised over the past month. In most countries, bond yields have... 25th February 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Latin America’s wasted decade Concerns about widening current account deficits have been a key factor driving the recent turbulence in financial markets in Latin America. But while the deterioration in the current account... 18th February 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update No evidence that weaker currencies are fuelling higher inflation Inflation was lower-than-expected across much of Latin America last month, which may help to dampen fears that weak currencies will fuel higher inflation. Despite this, another 50bp interest rate hike... 7th February 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Colombia: BANREP to allow further peso weakness In contrast to other parts of the emerging world, Colombian policymakers have welcomed the recent depreciation of the peso with open arms. We suspect that a further decline in the peso would be... 6th February 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Chart Pack Argentina devalues as Lat Am markets routed again Latin America’s financial markets have been among the hardest hit in the storm that has swept through the emerging world since the start of the year. The attention has focused on Argentina, where the... 31st January 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Will market turmoil trigger interest rate hikes? The recent market turmoil increases the likelihood of another 50bp interest rate hike in Brazil, but policymakers elsewhere in the region are unlikely to tighten monetary policy unless the currency... 30th January 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update A look ahead to 2014 elections The election calendar in Latin America is fairly quiet next year and even the two standout events - presidential elections in Colombia (in May) and Brazil (in October) - are likely to be relatively... 12th December 2013 · 1 min read
Latin America Economic Outlook Sluggish growth in 2014-15 After a golden decade during which annual GDP expanded by an average of more than 4%, Latin America is now entering a new era of weaker growth. We expect GDP growth to average 2.5-3.0% during 2014-15... 11th December 2013 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Colombian interest rates to stay on hold for most of 2014 Following the Colombian central bank’s decision to leave interest rates on hold on Friday, we think that the Colombian economy will have to deteriorate significantly to trigger additional rate cuts... 2nd December 2013 · 1 min read
Latin America Chart Pack Growth relapses in the third quarter After staging a brief recovery in Q2, the Latin American economy appears to have suffered a relapse in the third quarter. Our calculations show that regional growth slowed to just 2.5% y/y in Q3, from... 27th November 2013 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Fresh falls in Latin American currencies Latin American currencies have tumbled against the US dollar since mid-October and in many cases they are close to the lows that they reached during the height of this summer’s market sell-off... 15th November 2013 · 1 min read
