Political risk in Latin America has not been on most investors’ radar screens since the global financial crisis. Sure, you’ve had the headline grabbing stories about Mexico’s drug cartels, and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez’s colourful rhetoric still gets a fair bit of exposure outside the region. There’s also been a military coup in Honduras, and… [Read more]

The Clash Of The Soft Drinks Giants In Emerging Markets Peruvian drinks company Aje Group announced last week that it is issue its first bond, worth US$200mn, to fund expansion into Asia and Latin America and revealed it was also considering an IPO (initial public offering). The prospect of more rapid growth for Aje is… [Read more]

Although many of the more promising consumer industries in Latin America are reasonably easy to identify (e.g. food & drink and retail stocks), there are several other consumer-related sectors that I think have massive growth potential over the medium term. The first is airlines. Business and leisure travel is set to boom over the coming years,… [Read more]

While my colleagues at Business Monitor believe developed-state equity markets will outperform EM equities in 2011, they still believe it is still too early to call the end of the EM equity rally, and I tend to agree with them. True, many Latin American bourses look expensive, and this contrasts starkly to developed states, where… [Read more]

In a move that was widely anticipated by the markets, Venezuela officially devalued its currency on January 1 2011, unifying the ‘essential goods’ rate of VEF2.6000/US$ with the ‘non-essential’ VEF4.3000/US$ rate. While the increased supply of dollars in the economy will make it easier to maintain the fixed exchange rate system over the medium term,… [Read more]

As we head into 2011, my colleagues at BMI’s Latin America Rearch Team have outlined four core themes which will shape Latin America’s macro and market outlook for the upcoming year. 1. Monetary Policy – An End To Inflation Targeting? A desire to maintain export competitiveness will continue to slow the pace of policy rate… [Read more]

Emerging Market (EM) equities are looking good at the moment, there is no doubt about it, and as regular readers of Riskwatchdog will already know, I am particularly bullish towards Polish, Turkish and Abu Dhabi stocks. But now looking elsewhere for the next big thing, I turn my attention to Latin America, identifying Peru as… [Read more]