The government of Alvaro Uribe has pushed hard to improve Colombian’s fiscal profile – and with some success. Now it must lure back wary investors.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia Seeks Loans
Colombia is seeking loans of another $1.2 billion from the Inter American Development Bank (IADB). The highly-indebted country, which accounted for 12 percent of total lending approved by the IADB in 2004, has recently announced it would disburse $1.3 billion in emergency loans extended by the IADB in 2003. IADB president Enrique Iglesias has said that the bank plans to experiment in extending loans to Colombia in Colombian pesos.
Posted inMagazine
Still Waiting for Prosperity
The Andes should be benefiting from the global commodity boom. But that region’s patchy-run democracies seem incapable of capitalizing on the good times.
Posted inMagazine
Beyond Japan
Latin American issuers have built up a following among wealthy investors in Hong Kong and Singapore – as long as commodity prices don’t plunge.
Posted inDaily Brief
Heineken Eyes Bavaria
Heineken announced that it is among companies interested in buying Colombia’s Grupo Empresarial Bavaria as demand for beer in emerging markets outpaces consumption in the US and Western Europe. Fourteen percent of Heineken’s sales last year came from the Americas.
Posted inDaily Brief
Gutiérrez Holds On
Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutiérrez said he would not step down in spite of calls for his resignation from protestors and political opponents. Thousands of people took to the streets of Quito late last week to protest his decision to dissolve the Supreme Court. Gutiérrez declared a state of emergency to stop the protests but quickly revoked the measure Saturday after the military and police refused to take action against the protestors.
Posted inMagazine
Banana Republics
Latin America has done quite a good job handling its economic demons, although it hasn’t yet managed to cast out its archfiend: populism. But the machinations of Mexico’s political elites […]
Posted inDaily Brief
Belize’s Rating Cut
Standard & Poor’s cut Belize’s foreign-currency debt rating two levels to CCC, or eight levels below investment grade, citing the country’s increasing debt load and lack of access to financing. S&P has a “negative” outlook on Belize’s rating. Belize faces amortizations this year of $150 million, compared with $139 million in international reserves. The country’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio climbed to 97 percent last year, from 85 percent in 2003.
Posted inDaily Brief
Congress Votes Against AMLO
Mexico’s lower house of congress voted 360 to 127 to remove Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador from office to face charges of disobeying a court order, which could derail his 2006 presidential bid. López Obrador called on his supporters to peacefully resist what he called an unjust, politically motivated attempt to derail his presidential campaign. He specifically accused President Vicente Fox of conspiring to block his candidacy. Yields on Mexico’s ten-year dollar bonds have widened out by 100 basis points since hitting a record low on February 10th.
Posted inMagazine
Remarkable Results
Enrique García has turned the Andean Development Corp. from an obscure, second-string entity into the best-run development agency in Latin America.