Latin America

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.

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.

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.

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.

Global Finance sat down with José Francisco de Lima Gonçalves, a professor of economics at São Paulo University and chief economist at Banco Fator, to discuss his views on Brazil in 2015.

Capital Markets | Q&A
Eduardo Suárez, co-head of Latin America strategy in the Global Banking and Markets division of Scotiabank.

Country Report | Brazil
Brazil is fighting to restore economic growth and its international standing, as the Petrobras bribery scandal continues to wreak havoc on the economy and investment.

Management | Corporate Reporting
For Petróleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, as the giant Brazilian oil company is called, the time to present audited 2014 results, including the write-downs associated with the highly publicized historical corruption scandal, is running out.

Milestones | Mexico
Mexico is now Latin America’s largest annual automobile manufacturer, with 2014 production outpacing that of Brazil for the first time since 2002.

Regional Report | Latin America
Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru are handling the drop in commodities prices better than the rest of Latin America.

Newsmakers | Brazil
Aldemir Bendine became one of Brazil’s poster boys for success while at the helm of Banco do Brasil, but his new role as chief executive of the country’s oil giant, Petrobras, is causing him headaches.

Trends | Global Banking
On the surface at least, Spain’s Banco Santander and Cloud storage providers do not appear to have much in common.

Milestones | Venezuela
Venezuela’s introduction of a marginal free-floating currency system that will freely trade the US dollar and the bolivar seems unlikely to enlarge the country’s foreign exchange reserves or stem its growing external debt.

In a presentation in New York on February 18—his first official visit to the US since his appointment—Brazil’s Finance minister Joaquim Levy said that Brazilians are learning by doing.

Frontier Markets Report | Costa Rica
Costa Rica has a long history of actively and successfully seeking outside investment. However, the country is dealing with high unemployment and an uncertain fiscal outlook, given that the government plans to ramp up spending on social programs, which could raise the debt level.

Milestones | United States & Cuba
After 54 years of economic and diplomatic isolation, relations between Cuba and the United States appeared to thaw in mid-January, when the U.S. implemented a host of regulatory changes to its sanctions regime against the Communist country.