Mexico floods will not affect proposed 2013, 2014 budget deficits -government

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's proposed budget deficit goals for this year and 2014 will not be affected by some of the worst storm damage in decades, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.

Serial Defaulter Burnishes Taper-Proof Status: Argentina Credit

Argentina is enriching debt investors with returns that are nine times the average in emerging markets this quarter, underscoring the nation’s status as a haven against Federal Reserve policies that have whipsawed developing-nation bondholders.

Audi’s Return Shows Bet That Leases Spur Sales: Corporate Brazil

Carmakers in Brazil are anticipating leases will spur demand for new models as a tax incentive expires and companies such as Audi AG (NSU) start local production in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Mexico to escape recession after floods, but risks to growth rise: Reuters poll

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico is unlikely to be dragged into recession by severe flooding that has laid waste to large areas of farmland, destroyed homes and killed dozens of people, but the flooding has increased risk, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Brazil's Economy to Grow 2.4% in 2013, Industry Group Says

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In Latin America, Brazilian Banks Fill Void Left by Global Giants

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Mexico: Emerging market opportunity next door?

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Brazil Payrolls Reach New Record High for August

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Argentine GDP Surged More-Than-Expected 8.3% in Quarter

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Brazil Finance Minister: Fed Has Indicated Stimulus Withdrawal Will Be Slow

SAO PAULO--The U.S. Federal Reserve has signaled that it will take a very gradual approach to withdrawing monetary stimulus, which means there will be less impact on emerging markets, Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, said Wednesday.

AP Interview: Paraguay's new president wants taxes

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Mexico’s Peso Surges as Fed Stimulus Bolsters Bonds and Stocks

Mexico’s peso surged to a one-month high as the Federal Reserve refrained from paring the $85 billion pace of monthly bond buying, a stimulus program that’s fueled demand for the Latin American nation’s securities.

New US ambassador arrives in Brazil amid tensions

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The new U.S. ambassador to Brazil landed in the capital Monday amid increasing tensions over a U.S. spy program that aggressively targets Latin America's biggest nation, reportedly including the personal communications of its president.

Brazil Cools on Nuclear Power Plans; Favors Wind

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil will probably scale down its plans for new nuclear plants due to safety concerns following the 2011 radiation leak in Japan and pick up some of the slack with a "revolution" in wind power, the head of the government's energy planning agency said.

Mexico's government willing to revise tax plan seen hitting middle class

(Reuters) - The Mexican government said on Wednesday it was open to exploring alternatives to some of the more divisive proposals in a newly unveiled tax overhaul, faced with a growing chorus of resistance to measures that critics say hurt the middle class.

Chile Says Cuts Are Possible as Peru Keeps Key Rate Unchanged

Chile and Peru kept their key interest rates unchanged yesterday as the Andean neighbors weigh whether new stimulus measures are needed to stave off an economic deceleration.

Brazil's early highway infrastructure push suffers setback

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's early attempt at a badly needed expansion of its highway infrastructure sustained a serious setback on Friday when the government said one of two road concessions up for auction next week got no bids from investors.

JPMorgan: Bullish On Latin America, Ultra Bullish On Mexico's Energy Reform

Investors have shunned Latin America as concerns over Fed tapering absorbed capital flows that had flown out, chasing yield, during previous rounds of quantitative easing.

Analysis: Brazil may be spending its way towards a downgrade

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's finances are set to deteriorate substantially next year, leaving the government with few options to revive a sputtering economy and raising the threat of a credit downgrade.

Report: US spied on Brazil's Petrobras, Google

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Mexican Consumer Prices Rise Less Than Expected on Farm Costs

Mexican consumer prices rose less than expected in August amid muted increases in farm costs, with the annual inflation rate dropping to the lowest level since January.

Argentina's Central Bank Sees Economy Growing 4% in 2013

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Brazil Inflation Accelerates in August, As Expected

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Andres Oppenheimer: Latin America falling in global index

The World Economic Forum’s ranking of competitiveness released this week confirms what many of us feared: Latin America is losing ground in the global economy and is doing very little about it.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014, probably the most comprehensive study on countries’ ability to compete internationally, measures, among other things, each nations’ institutions, infrastructure, business climate, education, technological readiness and innovation. Switzerland tops the list of 148 countries as it did last year.

It’s followed by Singapore, Finland, Germany, the United States, Sweden, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Japan and the United Kingdom.

The Latin American country that ranks highest on the list is Chile (34) followed by Panama (40), Barbados (47), Costa Rica (54), Mexico (55) and Brazil (56). Further down on the list are Peru (61), Colombia (69), Ecuador (71), Uruguay (85), Guatemala (86), El Salvador (97), Bolivia (98), Nicaragua (99) and Argentina (104).

Near the bottom sit Venezuela (134) and Haiti (143) — ranked among the world’s most hopeless countries economically.

The report says that after a decade of steady economic improvement, thanks to rising commodity prices and sound macroeconomic policies, the tide is shifting. The latest data “show that most countries are stagnating in their competitiveness performance.”

Translation: The region is falling behind. “Urgent actions will be needed,” the report says. They include improving the functioning of institutions and the quality of education, technology and innovation.

“This will require a series of overdue reforms that have been repeatedly postponed,’’ according to the report. While Brazil and Mexico basically retained last year’s positions, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela suffered the biggest drops.

Argentina, where President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner last month bragged that her country’s economy is doing better than those of Australia and Canada, dropped 10 positions this year.

Incidentally, Canada ranks 14th in the WEF ranking, 90 places ahead of Argentina, and Australia ranks 21st — 83 places ahead of Argentina.) Even conflict-torn Algeria and Lebanon are more competitive than Argentina, the new ranking says.

Venezuela, in turn, dropped eight places from last year’s ranking, in line with a steady decline over the past decade. It now ranks alongside Uganda , Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Haiti and Chad as among the world’s least competitive countries.

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, a well-known economist at Columbia University and a leading author of the WEF Global Competitiveness Report, told me that “in Argentina and Venezuela, the problem is not just excessive state control of the economy, but bad state control of the economy.”

“Government decisions are not taken based on economic efficiency, but on political favoritism, and on punishment of those who don’t support the government,” he said. I asked him what the solution is. “There are many pending assignments, including infrastructure, and improving governance, but the key one is improving education,” he said.

“The biggest difference between Latin America and successful Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea and China is the incredible emphasis that Asian countries have placed in improving educations standards.”

My opinion: The bad news is that, in the short run, the leaders of Argentina, Venezuela and other populist/corruption havens will most likely dismiss the new competitiveness ranking.

As they have done before, they will probably stick to their own cooked statistics and try to showcase their economies’ alleged resilience in the midst of a global crisis.

But economic reality has changed and is making their claims look increasingly ludicrous to their own people.

During the past 10 years, thanks to high world commodity prices, they gave away cash subsidies in exchange for votes, wasting their countries’ biggest opportunity in recent memory to invest in education, infrastructure, and other pillars for long term-growth.

Now world commodity prices are no longer rising, and they can’t keep pretending that their countries are doing well. In oil-rich Venezuela, the lights are going off. Of course, populist leaders will blame others — the United States, “the oligarchy,” etc. — for their self-inflicted problems.

But it will become increasingly apparent that countries that have saved during the good times to be able to invest in their long-term growth will do much better. Count Chile, Peru and Brazil among them.

The new Global Competitiveness Report should sound alarm bells throughout the region. The days of easy money are over. Now, it’s a matter of becoming more competitive and selling more, as well as selling more innovative goods, in global markets.

miamiherald.com

Mexican Peso Falls to One-Year Low on Federal Reserve Concern

Mexico’s peso declined to its lowest level in a year as U.S. manufacturing growth added to speculation that the Federal Reserve will curtail a stimulus program that has supported emerging-market assets.

Mexico's America Movil: Hybrid bond aims to help rating

(Reuters) - A three-part sterling and euro hybrid bond that Mexico's America Movil (AMXL.MX) announced on Monday is aimed at preserving the company's credit rating and not linked to any particular pending deals, according to Chief Financial Officer Carlos Garcia Moreno.

Brazil Economists Increases Expansion Forecasts -Survey

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Sovereign Debt and Beyond: Toward a New Magna Carta?

Source: The Globalist

Alexander Mirtchev and Norman Bailey

The global debt burden appears to have gathered an unstoppable momentum, prompting divergent reactions. The world economy cannot count on growth to solve the global debt problem — and stimulus measures are not a sustainable solution. In the second installment in the series “The Search for a New Global Equilibrium,” Dr. Alexander Mirtchev and Dr. Norman Bailey explain why the solutions currently being offered are wholly inadequate to the scale of the problem, and argue the time is ripe for a “new Magna Carta” — a redefinition of the social contract among the government, Main Street and Wall Street.

U.S. spied on presidents of Brazil, Mexico: report

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Venezuela admits its economy has 'structural problems'

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Mexico leftist vows to block reforms, warns oil firms

CATEMACO, Mexico (Reuters) - Fiery Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to stop the government's energy and tax reforms and hopes to lead even bigger protests than when he brought central Mexico City to a standstill after narrowly losing the 2006 presidential election.