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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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...]

A region which traditionally received only little coverage is being considered an option by an increasing number of foreign investors. Richard Hamilton, BMI’s Latin America analyst, explains why interest in the region is growing, and whether Central America should be considered a viable option for foreign investors.

 

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Risk Watchdog and his colleagues at Business Monitor International (BMI) have grown very bullish Latin American currencies. Three views in particular stand out and form part of the BMI Global Key Market Views portfolio:

Last Friday, my colleagues at BMI initiated a long Chilean peso/short US dollar view, which hit the initial CLP510.00/US$ target within days, [Read more...]

On Tuesday Risk Watchdog attended Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s exposition of the ‘The international economy, and the process of the citizen’s revolution in Ecuador’ at the London School of Economics. Or at least that was the title of his talk. Disappointingly there was very little description of how the citizen’s revolution is progressing in present [Read more...]

Putting short-term views aside, Latin America’s Rahul Ghosh discusses the longer-term investment opportunities in the region. Prudent policies, commodity wealth and a promising consumer picture make this an attractive long-term play.

 

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