Brazil’s Q409 real GDP reading came in roughly in line with market expectations, posting a growth rate of 2.0% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) seasonally adjusted – its highest reading in two years. Expectations of a robust headline number for Q4 have previously sent the interbank deposit (DI) futures market higher, amid expectations that the Banco Central do [Read more...]

In the latest twist to the heavily publicised reserve kerfuffle, President Cristina Fernández has this week replaced her contested decree to tap the country’s foreign exchange buffer with a slightly tweaked order to the same end. According to local media, the central bank, now governed by one of Fernández’s close allies, has already started transferring [Read more...]

In an era where a global financial crisis has been caused not by developments in Russia, South-East Asia or Argentina, but by banking insolvency in the United States and sovereign default risks in a eurozone member state, namely Greece, our panel of senior commentators discusses what it means to be an ‘emerging market’. Justin Patrie, [Read more...]

 

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The fixed income investment community has been shaken up by growing concerns over Greece’s creditworthiness, which appear to be spreading like a bush fire across eurozone peripheral states. While concerns over significant sovereign credit risk are currently limited to the euro area and Dubai, my colleagues at BMI believe that Latin American government credit, too, [Read more...]

After a rough 2009, Mexico’s economic fundamentals look set for a breather over the next couple of months, as exports, manufacturing and unemployment levels continue to benefit from unprecedented fiscal stimulus north of the border. If the US Federal Reserve opts to keep the monetary floodgates open for a while longer, this could translate into [Read more...]

In this week’s Business Monitor Podcast ‘role-reversal’ Terry Alexander, Head of Country Risk and Capital Markets at Business Monitor, interviews Mark Schaltuper, Head of Latin American Markets, on the investment outlook for Brazil in 2010. With much of the ‘Great Brazil Hype’ already priced in, Mark argues that the tide may be turning for Brazilian [Read more...]

 

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Most people are well aware that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries are big recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI). But they are also big sources of FDI.

In 2009, for the first time, emerging market outbound mergers and acquisitions (M&A) flows outpaced inbound M&A flows, reaching US$131.8bn, according to Dealogic. Most of these [Read more...]