Denise Marin

Global Finance presents this year’s Best Banks in Central America.

Latin America’s Best Banks focused on stabilizing their economies.

The Best Banks in the Caribbean delivered via technology and are solidifying operations for post-pandemic economic recovery.

Retail e-commerce jumped 36.7% in 2020, to $84.9 billion in sales throughout the region in 2020 driven by the pandemic and lockdowns.

With tourism struggling and fiscal troubles looming, Central America and the Caribbean see commodities and tech as economic lifelines.

Struggling to control Covid-19 and obtain vaccines, Latin American governments are hoping commodities exports will pull them through.

Some of the most venerable institutions among this region of island nations are thriving in spite of the Covid-19 crisis.

Latin America’s best wealth management providers are building their presence within the region and in global financial centers to better serve their wealthy clients.

The December power transmission  auction will be the first launched by the Brazilian government in 2020. 

The credit card titans seek to leverage AI and data tools to deliver cybersecurity and other financial solutions as banks find it increasingly challenging to operate in the digital world.

As governments scramble to contain Covid-19, Latin America must still reckon with deep-seated economic shortcomings.

Central America and the Caribbean won’t revert to normal post-Covid. Digitization, diversification and infrastructure investment are contributing to a regional transformation.

More than half of Brazil’s 209.5 million people do not have access to water or sewer services.

Facebook's entry into the payments sector was derailed first in India and now Brazil.

Seeking to bounce back from a lost half-decade, Latin America still faces declining global demand and internal unrest in much of the region.

Guyana’s oil bounty could benefit the whole region, but climate events threaten tourism.

With pension reform approved, Congress is shifting its focus to creating a more pro-business environment.

Many of the Caribbean’s small economies boast growth rates that put bigger economies to shame.

Latin American governments struggle to keep investor-friendly reforms on track in the face of slumping economies and a populist revival.

A new agricultural initiative in the Caribbean aspires to reduce both obesity and dependence on cheap food imports. Can it spur eco-nomic growth too? After decades anchored to tourism and commodity exports, the Caribbean region is shifting to development through ...

China’s slowdown and trade uncertainties combine with domestic turbulence to make 2019 a year of low expectations for Latin America.

Cash remittances to the Caribbean have fallen due to crackdowns on criminal activity in the financial sector but fintechs are picking up some of the slack.

Low productivity, low investment rates and political uncertainty still hamper Latin America’s biggest markets. Financial innovation might help.

Africa is not the only continent China is investing in.

Whoever emerges on top of Brazil’s political system after this year’s election will face questions that have no good answers.

New CEO tries to bring stability to troubled company.

US-China trade tensions benefit Latin America's commodities and exports.

Chinese state company's purchase of Chilean lithium-maker would create one company with control of 70% of the world's lithium supply.

Following the Trump administration’s launch of tariffs on steel and aluminum, the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo, spoke again with Global Finance, about the global body’s role and the expanding trade tiffs that could set off another worldwide economic collapse.   

The head of the world’s largest economic cooperation organization speaks one-on-one with Global Finance about the pace of international trade—and the risks that confront it.

To get around sanctions, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is issuing an oil-and-reserves-backed cryptocurrency. If it succeeds, the ICO should provide the government with access to $6 billion. But cryptos are dicey. 

Just two of several programs over the past two years have attracted $45 million from local and foreign private inerests and created at least 8,000 jobs.

Turning old violent areas into competitive coffee producers still faces some obstacles.

Meirelles has fed his political ambitions since vacating his position as president of global banking at FleetBoston Financial in 2002, when he retired and returned to the state of Goiás, his homeland. 

Brazil's healthy food and drinks market, now the sixth biggest in the world, is becoming a magnet for global food giants like Nestle and Unilever.

The country recorded a GDP growth of 2.7% for the second quarter of  2017 after almost two years of negative growth. 

With the state-owned National Bank for Economic and Social Development ending its subsidized credit lending practice in Brazil,  state and private retail banks will have to step in to support the long-term credit market unlike at present.

With a growing budget deficit, Brazil is struggling to climb out of recession and become globally competitive.

Peru is expected to invest $1.5 billion in infrastructure for the games, including sporting facilities required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and at least 16 projects to improve chaotic traffic in the capital.

Chile expects lithium based  “white petroleum” industry to attract $10 billion in investment and generate 10,000 new jobs.

Encouraged by its successful bond sale in June, Argentina is planning another bond offer. But some experts are cautious ahead of October's midterm election.

Recent scandals and tragedies involving Brazilian companies, banks and public-sector agencies are turning into an opportunity for public-relations firms.

El Nino storms have caused Peru more than $12 billion in damage, and are expected to shave a full percentage point off the country’s GDP this year.

Famously fit Fabio Schvartsman faces environmnetal, financial and market challenges as newly appointed CEO of Brazilian iron-ore maker Vale.  

Brazil’s administration faces an approval rating of only 10.3% and the unpredictable course of corruption investigations. But president Michel Temer still has a major opportunity to get Congress this year to approve his ambitious and unpopular austerity reforms of social security, labor laws, and the opening of rural land and domestic airline sectors to foreign investors.

New mayor of São Paolo João Doria, a businessman, plans to sell the racing circuit of Interlagos and the operation of Pacaembu soccer stadium.

Foreign-currency bonds offer Argentina needed resources but come with heavy risks.

Latin American nations seeking fiscal fixes encounter a wide variety of factors beyond their control.

Brazil | Despite the optimistic expectations in 2009, when Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the competition in August is not likely to show Brazil in the best light.

Brazil
Well known for his caution, Brazil Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles is well aware of the enormity of his nation’s fiscal hole. Brazil is likely to report a primary deficit of $36 billion this year, instead of the $6.8 billion surplus previously forecast.