Latin America

Global Finance unveils its annual list of the best banks globally, regionally and by country. The winners have provided the best service to clients.

Global Finance’s annual evaluation of the work of the world’s central bankers found some stellar performances, and some dismal ones. The toughest challenge for many: propping up falling prices.

Compared with several other markets in the region, Peru’s economy is rock-solid.

Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, visited Global Finance on September 10, just as Standard & Poor’s cut Brazil’s public debt to junk level. We asked him about the outlook for that country and other emerging markets.

Table Of Contents

Regional Report | As relations between Cuba and the United States get friendlier, the economic outlook of the island is also improving.

Wedged between Brazil and Argentina—two neighbors with serious economic problems—Uruguay is an attractive foreign direct investment alternative in Latin America.

Major rating agencies are chasing each other in downgrading Brazil, as the country struggles with recession, a spiraling devaluation of the real and a damaging political crisis.

In the race to attract foreign direct investment, countries are opening SEZs at a furious rate. Winnowing down the choices requires some serious due diligence.

Global Finance interviewed Derek Pattison, Scotiabank’s VP of wealth management, Bahamas, on the importance of responding to clients’ needs for any product, anywhere.  

Newsmakers | Mexico
In June, Jaime Rodríguez Calderón became the first independent candidate to be elected a state governor in Mexico, winning office in Nuevo León.

Milestones | Venezuela
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, is being squeezed by low oil prices, and the government in Caracas is feeling the pain.

Chile | For years Chile has been recognized as one of the best-performing emerging markets in the world. But a combination of external and internal factors have changed that.

Capital Markets | Project Finance
Brazil’s multinational metals and mining group Vale has signed a $2.1 billion agreement with the Export-Import Bank of Korea.

Newsmakers | Nicaragua
When Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega announced last December a plan to construct a controversial transoceanic waterway that would provide an alternative to the Panama Canal, he vowed the project would create jobs and bring prosperity to the hemisphere’s second-poorest nation.

Global Finance sat down with Luiz Carlos Angelotti, MD and head of investor relations at Brazil’s Banco Bradesco, to discuss the bank’s bullish approach to investing despite the country’s economic downturn.

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Lima, Peru, in October, will provide world leaders with the right stage to discuss poverty and inequality and suggest ways for Latin American economies to foster growth less dependent on commodities, according to former president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo.

Special Report | The Caribbean
The Caribbean’s economies are expected to improve this year on the back of growth in tourism, but the economic climate remains frail with the drop in oil prices proving a mixed bag for countries in the region.

Global Finance talked money laundering, Cuba and banking regulation with David Schwartz, president and CEO of the Florida International Bankers Association, a nonprofit representing financial institutions in the US, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.

FDI Update | FDI Magnet
Countries that dismantled protec-tionist policies are still attracting FDI, despite the commodities bust. Others aren’t doing so well.