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El Salvador’s experiment with the greenback has gone well so far. The economy is growing, but bankers and government
officials realize there is still a lot of work ahead.
Entrepeneurs in Latin America face monumental obstacles: scarce and expensive financing, bureaucracies and unstable economies. Success is rare, but if governments keep the
faith with pro-market policies enterprise may yet thrive.
Roberto Junguito, Colombia’s new finance minister, has his work cut out for him. He must deal with the country’s budget
deficit, wage fiscal war on the guerillas and grow the
economy.
President Vicente Fox has been unable to overcome the
political obstacles to many of his vaunted reform plans. Still,Mexico has largely avoided South America’s malaise and remains a regional economic powerhouse.
Despite the financial turmoil spreading across South America, Chile remains an isalnd in the storm. The country has pragmatism inits blood and its finance minister, Nicolás Eyzaguirre, has maintained rigid control over national spending. His former counterpart in Peru (see “Politics Torpedoes Growth”) has had less success.
Trinidad and Tobago has more money than it knows what to do with. A debilitating political deadlock is making dealing
with this abundant liquidity an even greater problem.
Corus’s acquisition of Brazilian steelmaker Companhia
Siderúrgica Nacional slashes the Latin American company’s financing costs and folds it into an investment grade European competitor.
The region’s top borrowers value their investment banks’ ability to anticipate problems, provide secondary market
support and use creative thinking even more than a close
relationship, according to a LatinFinance poll.
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