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Bloomberg Línea — Colombia, together with Mexico, Chile and Peru, has signed a free trade agreement with Singapore, making the Asian nation state the first to enter into an agreement with the Pacific Alliance bloc.
Chile’s Central Bank caused a surprise in its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, raising interest rates by 150 points to 5.5%, which was above economists’ and analysts’ projections.
Following is a roundup of Wednesday’s news from our reporters across Latin America.
Argentina
- Argentina has asked China to extend its bilateral currency swap in yuan in order to strengthen its reserves ahead of the South American country’s large maturities with the International Monetary Fund. The government has already made the request and the issue will be discussed in early February in Beijing when President Alberto Fernández travels to Winter Olympics.
- Argentine company Satellogic started trading on Wall Street and on its first day its shares rose by 6.9% to $9.35 after its merger with a company belonging to U.S. financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
Brazil
- Brazilian mining company Vale (VALE3) is accusing Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz of having committed fraud in a US$ 2.5 billion agreement for the purchase of the Simandou mine in Guinea.
- Former president Lula da Silva said that if he wins the October elections he will negotiate with all the forces in Congress to build a support base.
- Hamburger chain Madero has confirmed the cancellation of its planned IPO.
- So-called ‘social commerce’, or ‘s-commerce’, which involves the experience from the moment a product is discovered to the checkout within a social network, is expected to more than double in terms of the number of transactions in Brazil over the next three years, according to a report by Accenture.
Chile
- Chile’s Central Bank caused a surprise in its monetary policy meeting, raising interest rates by 150 points to 5.5%, which was above economists’ and analysts’ projections.
Colombia
- Colombia, together with Mexico, Chile and Peru, has signed a free trade agreement with Singapore. This is the first state associated to the Pacific Alliance bloc.
- The fall of Nubank shares on Wall Street, which have accumulated a more than 18% drop in one month, dragged down the bank’s founder David Vélez down in Bloomberg’s world ranking of millionaires, although he is still in Colombia’s top three.
Ecuador
- Ecuador closed its 2021 fiscal deficit at $3.73 billion, representing 3.5% of GDP and a significant drop of $3.37 billion compared to 2020, according to the country’s Economy and Finance Minister Simón Cuevas.
Mexico
- Mexico’s expected 2022 tax collection is at risk of not being achieved due to the impact of the Omicron variant on the Mexican economy and lower growth forecasts for this year. Tax revenues would start the year with a shortfall of around 100 billion pesos ($4.85 billion).
- Private oil companies in Mexico failed to meet their 2021 production goals and have accumulated three years of failures, according to the National Hydrocarbons Commission.
Peru
- Peruvian authorities detected a second oil spill involving Repsol while cleaning up the spill of January 15, according to a statement from the Navy.
- The government has announced that, from January 27, the curfew imposed on the country to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic will be lifted. Health Minister Hernando Cevallos said however that restrictions will remain in place prohibiting crowds and social gatherings.
