Latin America: Making The Good Times Bette

Latin America has enjoyed tremendous economic dynamism and a rising quality of life in recent years. But, faced with new challenges, the question is: how best to sustain this progress?

As I travel through the region next week—visiting Panama, Uruguay, and Brazil—I'm looking forward to hearing the views of government officials, parliamentarians, and university students on the key challenges facing their countries today. Here are three questions that I look forward to discussing during my trip.

Brazil's tax revenue hits record high for January

BRASILIA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Brazil posted record tax collection for January on the back of healthy industrial production and retail sales, the federal tax authority said on Wednesday.

Tax revenue in January, adjusted for inflation, jumped to 91.1 billion reais ($54.3 billion) an increase of 15.3 percent from a year earlier. Tax revenue in December totaled 90.9 billion reais.

Venezuela: stuttering back to growth

It is hard not to shed a tear for Venezuela. Latin America’s largest oil producer on Tuesday confirmed that it had pulled off the remarkable feat of contracting 1.4 per cent during a year in which oil prices rallied.

That was the second consecutive year of negative growth for Venezuela – in 2009, the country led by socialist President Hugo Chávez shrank 3.3 per cent – and it comes as the rest of Latin America is rebounding strongly from the global recession of two years ago.

Mexico's Economy Expands at Fastest Pace in a Decade as Growth Hits 5.5%

Mexico’s gross domestic product expanded last year at the fastest pace in a decade as Latin America’s second-biggest economy recovered from a 2009 recession provoked by the global financial crisis.

GDP, the broadest measure of a country’s output of goods and services, grew 5.5 percent last year, the most since 2000, the national statistics agency said on its website. GDP expanded 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. The economy was forecast to grow 4.4 percent in the final quarter, according to a survey of 13 analysts by Bloomberg.

Mexico's Economy Expands at Fastest Pace in a Decade as Growth Hits 5.5%

Mexico’s gross domestic product expanded last year at the fastest pace in a decade as Latin America’s second-biggest economy recovered from a 2009 recession provoked by the global financial crisis.

GDP, the broadest measure of a country’s output of goods and services, grew 5.5 percent last year, the most since 2000, the national statistics agency said on its website. GDP expanded 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. The economy was forecast to grow 4.4 percent in the final quarter, according to a survey of 13 analysts by Bloomberg.

Obama has broad agenda in Latin America trip, Brazil key

President Barack Obama will pursue a broad agenda when he makes a five-day trip to three Latin American nations in March, soon after Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner traveled to the largest economy in the region, Brazil, to lay the groundwork for the President's trip.

Obama will be meeting new Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff for the first time since she took office for outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Yabrud's Products Reach Latin America's Markets

Damascus Countryside, (SANA) _ Like several industrial centers in Damascus Countryside, Yabrud City has started as a housing agricultural compound meeting all of its requirements through manufacturing the suitable tools for the handicrafts mastered by its people.

Later, the City turned into an industrial and commercial center which has attracted all the surrounding housing compounds as the commodities produced by Yabrud has started to be exported to several countries, particularly the Latin American ones.

Latin Day Ahead: MMX to Revive Loan Market With Project Finance

Plans by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista to borrow as much as $1.5 billion from banks to develop an iron-ore mining project mark what lenders say could be the return of project finance to Latin America’s largest economy.

Latin America and Asia lead global commercial property growth

Sentiment towards global commercial real estate continues to improve with Latin America and Asia leading the way while Japan and the peripheral euro area remain near the bottom of the pile, according to a new survey published today (Tuesday February 15).

Agents in approximately three quarters of the countries represented in the fourth quarter Global Commercial Property Survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors reported greater demand from tenants for commercial property in the final three months of last year.

China plans Colombian rail link to challenge Panama canal

It is a dream that bewitched Spain, ruined Scotland, stumped France and empowered the US: a path from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

The ambition unleashed ruinous follies in Panama's jungles until the US finally finished a canal in 1914, an engineering feat that transformed global trade.

Investors bullish on Latin America

Latin American investors remain bullish on the continent’s outlook in 2011, with many planning to rachet up their exposure to Brazil and Mexico, according to a new poll.

At a time when money is dripping out of emerging market equity funds, more than half (65 per cent) of the 289 investors surveyed by Banco Santander at a recent conference still expect total returns on their Latin American holdings to match or exceed what they earned last year. And 91 per cent are betting Latin American equities will throw up positive returns in the first half of 2011, buoyed by booming commodity prices, spending by the middle class and the recovery of the US economy. Drilling down more closely, more than one-third of the investors polled (41 per cent) expect the MSCI-LatAm Index to rise 5 to 10 per cent while 21 per cent are even more optimistic and forecast gains of more than 10 per cent.

Diageo misses forecasts but is saved by emerging markets

Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group, today missed City profit forecasts for the first half of its financial year and only avoided having to lower its full-year targets because of a strong recovery in its emerging markets divisions.

The maker of Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Guinness said Europe was weaker due to the challenging economic conditions, although that was offset by better trading in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

EMERGING MARKETS-Latam stocks slip as inflation fears abound

SAO PAULO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Latin American stocks slipped in early trading on Wednesday as investors fretted that rising consumer prices around the world could prompt governments to brake economic growth to contain inflation.

The MSCI Latin American stocks index .MILA00000PUS dipped 0.41 percent, following a two-day rally.

Optimistic excess on Latin America

“Will 2011 be the dawn of the Latin American decade?” asked the headline of a Standard & Poor’s webcast that piqued my curiosity last week. When I saw it, I wondered whether the Wall Street ratings firm was making a big blunder, or I was missing the biggest economic story in the region.

The Standard & Poor’s headline was only the latest of several optimistic reports about Latin America’s economies. All of a sudden, Latin America is becoming — after China and India — an emerging economic star.

Huge spike in illegal Indian traffic to US via Mexico

WASHINGTON: Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Indians are sneaking into the United States across the Mexico border in what American authorities are saying is a sudden and unexpected spike in illegal immigration — from a country half way across the world which is said to be in the throes of an economic boom.

More than 1,600 Indians have been caught since the influx began in early 2010, while an undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have slipped through undetected, according to US border authorities cited in an account by the Center for Investigative Reporting and published by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.

Brazil's Industry Losing World Market Share To China

BRASILIA, Feb 4 (BERNAMA-NNN-MERCOPRESS) - Competition with top trading partner China is costing Brazil's industry valuable market share.

The National Confederation of Industry (CNI) in Latin America's largest economy said half of Brazil's export firms battle against Chinese peers for business and 67% of them lost market share in international competition with the Asian powerhouse.

Santander profit down 5 pct in Q4 amid debt crisis

MADRID (AP) — Profit at Spain's Santander bank fell 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter as losses in Europe, where the debt crisis hammered markets, offset gains in emerging markets.

The largest bank in the 17-nation eurozone said Thursday it earned euro2.1 billion ($2.9 billion) in the October-December period, down from euro2.2 billion in the same quarter for 2009.

EMERGING MARKETS-Latin American stocks rally on solid US data

MEXICO CITY/SAO PAULO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Latin American stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday after strong U.S. manufacturing data offset worries about unrest in the Middle East.

The MSCI Latin American stocks index .MILA00000PUS added 2.49 percent, posting its biggest one-day percentage gain in more than two months.

Argentina, Brazil Sign Energy, Internet, Transportation Deals

BUENOS AIRES—The presidents of Argentina and Brazil signed a broad range of agreements Monday to cooperate on everything from nuclear power development to broadband expansion and regional pharmaceutical standards.

In her first state visit abroad, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff met with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to underscore the importance of political and economic ties between the countries.

The presidents, who touted the meeting as a historical event between two women who lead South American nations, pledged to build literal and figurative bridges between the nations.

Among other things, they will work together to promote the development of biofuels in the region, share research on two new 30-megawatt nuclear reactors, exchange electricity and boost broadband access in the region.

In addition, the presidents said they will work together on common pharmaceutical goals that should help the counties to reduce their "dependence" on imported drugs from other regions.

Meanwhile, the cooperation in nuclear research on the new reactors will be based on a reactor that the Argentine technology company Invap produced for Australia.

The multipurpose reactors will allow for joint work on radioisotopes and food irradiation, among other things.

The countries will also build a new international bridge that crosses the Pepiri-Guazu river to connect the cities of San Pedro in Argentina and Paraiso in Brazil.

Ms. Rousseff, a 62-year old former leftist guerilla, was elected Brazil's first woman president last October after serving as a cabinet minister in the government of her predecessor, the immensely popular Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It was the first time Ms. Rousseff had run for elective office.

Argentina's president, by contrast, is a consummate politician. A trained lawyer, Ms. Kirchner, 57, has had stints as senator for the provinces of Santa Cruz and Buenos Aires before succeeding her husband, the late Nestor Kirchner, in the presidency in 2007.

The countries also pledged to work together on public housing projects and the joint promotion of trade and exports to other countries.

Argentina and Brazil were rivals for much of the 20th century. However, Argentina's influence has waned on the continent as Brazil reaps the fruits of nearly two decades of political stability and economic reforms.

Brazil, which boasts Latin America's largest economy, is increasingly flexing its economic and political muscle abroad. Brazilian corporations are global heavyweights in mining, aerospace, steel and food processing, while Brazil's voice is increasingly heard in the Group of 20 industrialized and big emerging nations, and in other international organizations.

Political continuity and economic stability have proven elusive in Argentina. The free-market policies of the 1990s, which are blamed for devastating local industry, were followed by a sovereign debt crisis and economic meltdown in 2001-2002.

Argentina's economy has posted high levels of growth under Ms. Kirchner and her husband, but at the cost of inflation that is widely believed to be running more than double the official 10.9% reported for 2010.

Argentina, South America's No. 2 economy, and Brazil have increasingly looked to cooperate on trade and foreign policy issues. Brazil has backed Argentina's claims of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, which the United Kingdom controls, and the two neighboring nations dominate the southern cone customs union, known as Mercosur, whose other founding members are Uruguay and Paraguay.

Brazil is also Argentina's top trading partner. Trade between the neighboring countries has grown tenfold in the last two decades to nearly $33 billion last year.

Source: http://online.wsj.com