Bloomberg Línea — Chile’s Constitutional Convention, the citizens’ congress charged with drawing up a new constitution for the country, entered a new phase on Tuesday with the 154 members voting on the first norms debated by the convention that, if approved, will be included in the final proposal of the document that will be submitted to a plebiscite.
Ecuador set a new record in flower exports on Valentine’s Day by shipping 20,112 metric tons, surpassing the record of the second best year, which was 2020, by 4.8%.
And on the region’s stock markets, the S&P BVL/Peru led Latin America’s gains, with stocks of companies such as Minsur (MINSURI1), Aenza (AENZAC1) and Credicorp (CRECAPC1) among the best performers.
Peru’s statistics bureau reported Tuesday that the Peruvian economy grew by 13.31% in 2021, slightly above the 13.2% growth forecast by the central bank. The contraction of economic activity in 2020 was above 11%
Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV), the leading index of the largest stock exchange by market capitalization in Latin America, closed with gains as risk aversion decreased due to the Russian announcements. The S&P/BMV IPC, the Mexican stock market’s main index, also ended in the green.
Following is a roundup of Tuesday’s news from Bloomberg Línea and Bloomberg reporters across Latin America.
Argentina:
- With a strong rise in prices in the communications, restaurants and food sectors, inflation in January was 3.9%, according to statistics bureau INDEC, while the inter-annual consumer price index variation for January was 50.7%.
- Mercedes Marcó del Pont, head of the country¡s tax authority AFIP, said the entity will strengthen the taxation and control over the sectors with the highest taxpaying capacity.
- President Alberto Fernández appeared in court to testify in a trial investigating alleged arbitrariness in the distribution of public works by the Province of Santa Cruz and businessman Lázaro Báez.
Brazil:
- Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro landed amid diplomatic turmoil in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. But instead of adding his voice to those seeking an end to the standoff over Ukraine, Bolsonaro appears to be trying to put on a show for his domestic audience.
- Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticized the labor reforms carried out during the administration of former president Michel Temer, who was in office in 2016 and 2018, and social security reforms approved under Jair Bolsonaro, in an interview with a radio station in Paraná.
Chile:
Colombia:
- Colombia’s statistics agency DANE reported that in 2021 the country’s economy grew by 10.6%, a rebound of 17.6 percentage points compared to the 7% contraction in 2020.
Ecuador:
- Ecuador set a new record in flower exports on Valentine’s Day by shipping 20,112 metric tons, surpassing the record of the second best year, which was 2020, by 4.8%.
- Arca Continental (AC*), a bottler of Coca-Cola products in Mexico, the U.S. and several South American countries, is exploring the expansion of its beer and other alcoholic beverage distribution operations, including in Ecuador.
El Salvador:
Mexico:
- State utility CFE has denounced that private companies generating renewable energy in the Isthmus of Tehuanepec, in the state of Oaxaca, are causing pollution. While being one of the poorest regions of the country, it has among the three best locations in the world for generating wind power.
- The U.S. government is reviewing possible irregularities in Mexico’s work plan for avocado exports to that country, after Mexican authorities were notified by Washington on February 12 of the temporary suspension of avocado shipments from the western Mexican state of Michoacán.
