Latin America News Weekly – 27-02-12

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Argentinian official data is questioned by The Economist magazine 

The British magazine The Economist has announced that it will stop publishing the economic indicators released by the government of Argentina.

Instead, it will use only inflation indexes calculated by the American company PriceStats, which collects and dissiminates about a thousand economic numbers of several countries. According to the institution, Argentina had an increase in living costs of 24.4% in 2011, and of 137% accumulated from 2007 to 2011. In constrast, the official authority of statistics of the country (Indec), claims that inflation was 9.7% last year, and 44% since 2007.

“Argentina with no doubt will says that (PriceStats) measures the consumption of the rich and not the consumption of the poor, who don´t buy from the internet. But the methods of PriceStats have an impressive convergence with official indicators in countries like Brazil and Venezuela”, justifies The Economist in an article titled “Don´t lie to me Argentina”.

In an exchange for financial help to Europe, Brazil wants more power in the IMF

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega has said the country is willing to help the recovery of struggling economies in Europe. Their condition, namely that European nations increase their own investments and then accelerate a reform in the IMF, which would bring more power to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).

“First the European countries should strenghten the firewall. They have much more resources they said they have – you just need to check of the European Central Bank, which can bring liquidity to the European banks”, explained Mantega after a meeting of the emerging countries last Saturday.

Moody´s may downgrade classification of Brazil and Mexico´s banks

The risk agency Moody´s announced last Friday the likely review of the risk classification and the downgrading of debt and deposit ratings (short and long term) of 15 banks and insurance groups from Brazil and Mexico. “Moody´s will assess the effects of any sustained fall at the capacity of the controlling groups supplying the foreign subsidiaries”, said Moody´s. The list of companies at risk is detailed below:

• Banco Bradesco
• Itaú Unibanco
• Banco do Brasil
• Votorantim
• Safra
• Santander Brasil
• Citibank
• BES
• HSBC Brasil
• Deutsche Bank México
• Bank of America México
• Banco Credit Suisse México
• Barclays Bank México
• BBVA
• Bancomer
• Banco Nacional de México

Leonardo Gottems  (92 Posts)

Leonardo Gottems (twitter: @gottems - Facebook.com/gottems) is a brazilian journalist and communications adviser with over ten years experience. Has worked on newspaper, internet, radio and broadcast television. His specialty is the editorial coverage of economics, politics and business. Three years ago he also founded a company of marketing and communication advisory, the Gottems Strategic Communication (www.gottems.com), with international operations. It's the Brazil and Latin America Editor for Timizzer, always bringing relevant and firsthand news about these emerging markets.

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