Brazil’s Gol Agrees to Buy Webjet to Gain Market Share

Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Brazil’s second-largest airline by market share, agreed to acquire Webjet Linhas Aereas SA for 96 million reais ($61 million), as it seeks to recover market share in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Sao Paulo-based Gol said in a regulatory filing today that the deal valued closely-held Webjet at 310.7 million reais, according to a regulatory filing. Webjet, a low-cost carrier based in Rio de Janeiro and controlled by Guilherme Paulus, is Brazil’s fourth-largest airline, with 5.2 percent of the country’s airline market.

SABMiller lifts Latin America beer target on economy boost

SABMiller, the world's No. 2 brewer and Anheuser-Busch InBev rival, raised its forecast on Tuesday for beer volume growth in its biggest region, Latin America, due to price cuts and a strengthening economic recovery.

The London-based brewer of Grolsch, Peroni and Miller Lite, which is bidding for Australian group Foster's, said regional beer volume in April-June was up around 6 percent while its key Colombian market had seen 10-percent plus volume growth in June.

Slowing Inflation Unifies Traders’, Economists’ Rate Bets: Mexico Credit

Mexican traders and economists are pushing back their forecasts for interest-rate increases to next year, reaching a consensus for the first time in eight months as inflation slows in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.

Yields on the 28-day interbank rate futures due in January, known as TIIE, dropped 15 basis points, or 0.15 percentage point, in the past month to 4.99 percent, indicating traders are betting central bank Governor Agustin Carstens will wait until that month to raise the benchmark rate. Economists moved their forecast for a rate boost to March from January, according to a survey by Citigroup Inc.’s Banamex unit on June 20.

Biggest Bond Rally in 10 Months Fueled by Slowing Inflation: Mexico Credit

Mexican bonds are posting their biggest gain in 10 months on speculation slowing inflation will prompt the central bank to keep interest rates at a record low.

The yield on the government’s notes due in 2024 dropped 22 basis points in the five days ending June 24, the biggest weekly slide since August, to 7.07 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In Brazil, yields on the country’s real- denominated bonds maturing in 2021 climbed nine basis points, or 0.09 percentage point, during the same period, to 12.41 percent.

Urban marketplaces, long common in Latin America, flourishing in Cuba amid economic changes

HAVANA — Marketplaces full of vendors hawking everything from food to religious items may be common sights across Latin America, but they’re springing up for the first time in the Cuban capital as the island’s Communist government opens its tightly controlled economy to some private-sector activity.

Nearly 140 official points of sale in abandoned structures, parking lots and crumbling old buildings have been established in recent months and are accommodating about 2,600 independent vendors, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Friday. The number of markets “should grow steadily,” Luis Carlos Gongora, vice president of Havana’s Provincial Administration Council, told the newspaper.

Analysis: Latam gets grip on inflation, Asia giants struggle

(Reuters) - Latin America is getting the upper hand on inflation that once ravaged the region but central banks in some of Asia's heavyweight economies are having a tougher time.

The question of who will win the battle of balancing policy to achieve optimum growth and inflation levels remains an open one, simply because potential price pressures from rising wages and demand are more elevated in India and China than in some of their Latin American peers.

Brazil's Economic Boom Advances in First Quarter

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil's economy continued to expand at the start of 2011, fueled by record-low unemployment and higher wages that allowed families to boost spending.

Brazil's gross domestic product expanded 4.2% in the first quarter compared with the first quarter a year earlier, the Brazilian Census Bureau, or IBGE, said Friday. That was below the 4.5% median forecast made by eight economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and down from year-on-year growth of 5% in the fourth quarter. But Brazil's economic boom actually gained steam in the first quarter, surging 1.3% compared with 0.8% growth in the fourth quarter, the IBGE said.

Brazil IGP-M inflation slows in May to 0.43 pct

SAO PAULO, May 30 (Reuters) - Brazil's broadest inflation
index rose less than expected in May, adding to signs that
price pressures in Latin America's biggest economy could be
receding after a worrisome advance earlier this year.

From Currency wars to Trade wars

Economic growth in emerging markets is more than twice that in advanced economies (7.3% versus 3% in 2010, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund). Not surprisingly, emerging markets are attracting capital inflows and have higher inflation rates (6.2% versus 1.6%). This is the case in much of Latin America. In its recent World Economic Outlook, the IMF recommends monetary tightening in emerging markets and continued monetary accommodation in the advanced economies. Alas, both pieces of advice could breed protectionism if not accompanied by effective capital controls.

Rising food prices could sway voters in Latin America

The rising cost of food in Latin America is squeezing workers and families already struggling to survive below the poverty line and could give opposition parties a boost in elections from Peru to Mexico.

Governments are scrambling to contain food prices and inflation in general, handing out discounted beef in Argentina and helping small Mexican food producers buy contracts in financial markets to buffer against higher corn prices.

EDP May Sell as Much as 14% of Brazil Unit in Public Offering

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- EDP-Energias de Portugal SA, the biggest power company in Portugal, said it may sell a stake of as much as 14 percent of its Brazilian unit in a public offering as Latin America’s biggest economy expands.

The Portuguese utility currently holds 64.8 percent of the EDP-Energias do Brasil SA unit, Lisbon-based EDP said in a filing posted on the website of Portugal’s securities regulator.

Spanish economy weighs heavy on Telefónica

Spain’s stuttering economy weighed on Telefónica in the first quarter as growth at the eurozone’s biggest telecoms operator continued to be driven by its Latin American operations.

Telefónica said that revenues in its Spanish business fell by 5.6 per cent in the first quarter to €4.37bn ($6bn) driven by high levels of unemployment and increased price-based competition among domestic operators.

Latin America must trace its own path out of crisis, Fernandez says

SANTO DOMINGO.- President Leonel Fernandez yesterday said he regrets that since the two years when the global economic crisis began, the formulas to solve it have yet to be found, for which he suggests that Latin America adopt a regional position to surpass it.

He also proposed fusing the neoliberal and neopopulist economic currents, to look for a third option as a viable solution to the crisis. "It’s there, where we were at the moment, how to look for the solution, overcoming neoliberalism and neopopulism, and perhaps the answer is to integrate the two, in linking State with market, that’s the other great polemic."

Foreign Investment Returns to Latin America

MEXICO CITY—Foreign direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean is recovering from pre-crisis levels thanks to the boom in commodities and the rising interest of China in the region.

Investment by foreign entities rose by 40% in 2010 to $113 billion, a report by the United Nations showed. South America, and in particular Brazil, was the primary beneficiary of the funds, followed by Mexico, said Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC.)

Latin America in bloom

HSBC’s head of macro and investment strategy Philip Poole recounts his time in Latin America and the progress the region has made recently.

I recently spent a fortnight in some of the smaller markets in Latin America – countries that historically have not received the level of attention the larger regional markets have been benefitting from for some time now.

IMF warns Latin America of "overheated" economy, high inflation

PANAMA CITY, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Latin American countries face an economic "overheating" with high consumer inflation, the International Monetary Found (IMF) said on Wednesday.

Luis Cubeddu, assistant director of regional studies for the IMF, said the current favorable economic conditions for the region will not be permanent. Cubeddu was speaking at a joint press conference held here together with the IMF representative for Central America, Fernando Delgado.

Analysis: China eases Brazil's concerns with investments

(Reuters) - China has put its relations with Latin America's largest economy back on track by sending Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff home with billions of dollars in pledged investments, showing its economic clout and easing, for now, Brazil's concerns over trade imbalances.

The Asian giant's showering of business deals on Rousseff contrasts sharply with last month's trip to Brazil by U.S. President Barack Obama, who offered much praise for Brazil's rising economy but few concrete agreements.

Is Peru's Political Suicide America's Future?

Peru had its presidential election on Sunday, and the outcome could not have been worse. Few Americans will care about that, but they should. The result is not just another example of Latin America's self-destructive tendencies. It may be America's future.

Grupo NCF sees Peru as leading economy in Latin America this year

Lima, Apr. 04 (ANDINA). The Peruvian economy has started 2011 on the right foot and is poised to become one of the leading economies in Latin America this year, according to Lima-based brokerage Grupo NCF SAB.

Juan Carlos Castillo, an analyst at Grupo NCF SAB, noted that in recent years the Peruvian economy has maintained monetary and fiscal stability, reflected in the strength of its basic macroeconomic indicators.

Latin American and Caribbean Economic System Condemns U.S. Blockade of Cuba

Havana, Cuba, Mar 22.- Representatives from the 28 member countries of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) condemned on Monday in Caracas, Venezuela, the U.S. Government’s unjust blockade imposed on Cuba for almost 50 years.

SELA’s Permanent Secretary, Jose Rivera Banuet, reiterated the bloc’s rejection of this unilateral policy in a meeting to assess economic relations between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean during the first two years of mandate of U.S. President Barack Obama.