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COUNTRY INSIGHTS

(Politics Are) Hot, Hot, Hot
CENTRAL AMERICA · Report · 24 Dec 2013

Executive Summary The Costa Rican presidential race is heating up, with dark horse leftist candidate José María Villalta advancing. A Unimer poll for the daily La Nación, published in early December, gave Villalta 23.7% of the votes by voters who had made up their minds, while government candidat...

Governor on 2014 Monetary Policy: Short Term Gain, Long Term Pain?
TURKEY · In Brief · 24 Dec 2013

Governor Basci introduced the CBT's 2014 Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy report today. As far as the big picture is concerned, there are no major surprises. The Bank plans to deal with the F/X market pressures in two phases, as fas as we can see it. Phase One: Do not move rates any higher than ...

S&P raises Mexico’s credit rating: more wishful thinking on debt quality improvement than hard facts
MEXICO · In Brief · 23 Dec 2013

Standard and Poor’s (S&P), raised Mexico’s sovereign rating from BBB to BBB+ shortly after Energy Reform was approved. Mexico’s country rating has been investment grade for a while. With this action S&P reverses the one notch reduction following the 2009 recession (-6.2% annual GDP change) and br...

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
TURKEY · Report · 22 Dec 2013

The arrests of two sons of Cabinet ministers for charges of influence peddling makes it almost certain that AKP-Gulen battle has passed the point of no return. Like Ergenekon-Sledgehammer trials it shall anger and bemuse the nation for years to come. This is the opening act; the pro-Gulen judicia...

Stagflation Postponed to 2014
VENEZUELA · Report · 20 Dec 2013

Executive Summary Venezuela will begin 2014 with growth slowing sharply and inflation remaining sky high. In other words, the country will suffer stagflation. We estimate that GDP will grow by only 1.6 percent this year and shrink by 2.5 percent in 2014. We see inflation rates persisting in the 5...

Advantage Gulen, Service Erdogan
TURKEY · In Brief · 20 Dec 2013

The action on the screen is moving so fast, it is impossible to suppress the adrenalin rush and to contemplate the end of this movie. Dare I say that the Bribery and Corruption Operation (the Operation) may be the second most talked-about affair in GEM after Fed’s taper? In this brief note, I out...

Moderation Times
PERU · Forecast · 19 Dec 2013

Executive Summary Amid a less favorable international environment, and louder political noise, the Peruvian economy slowed mildly this year. The two main culprits were a decline in exports, and dwindling private investment growth. We expect GDP to grow 5% in 2013, or 1.5 pp below the robust avera...

Operation Big Fish: The morning after
TURKEY · In Brief · 18 Dec 2013

I’m still not ready to write a full-blown market brief on the “Big Fish” corruption probe launched yesterday, because there is so little official information. For instance, we don't even know whether the detainees (85 in total) are material witnesses are actually accused of crimes. We also need t...

Buying one more year of ‘stability’
UKRAINE · In Brief · 17 Dec 2013

Ukraine was sold. Officially. For $15 billion loan and $130 per tcm gas price discount. Yanukovitch has been bargaining heavily with EU and Russia and finally he’s got his price. But he does not look happy with this deal. From this day he became a full-fledged marionette of Putin with all consequ...

Where Has All the Spending Gone?
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC · Report · 17 Dec 2013

Executive SummaryPublic investment spending is dragging once again, with probable negative implications for demand, employment and growth. And the 2013 budget deficit is likely to be smaller than expected, though tax revenues are also below target. Tax revenues have been persistently falling shor...

The Challenges Ahead
MEXICO · Report · 17 Dec 2013

Executive Summary As we near the end of what could be described as the most congressionally productive year the Mexican government has enjoyed in at least two decades, there is a bit of irony in the fact that the administration that has presided over such an ambitious reform agenda has lower appr...

Economics: Looking for the FDI Tide to Turn
MEXICO · Report · 17 Dec 2013

Executive Summary Last week the Mexican Congress passed energy reform amendments to the constitution with the support of the PAN and PRI, and over the opposition of the PRD. The most significant aspect of the reform is the extent to which it opens the industry to private investment through a broa...

Monetary Policy: Making a Normal Day Tighter
TURKEY · In Brief · 17 Dec 2013

Today's MPC decision brought no surprises on the "three policy rates" -- the so-called two stable rates (repo rate of 4.5% and primary dealer rate of 6.75%) as well as the marginal funding rate (of 7.75%) -- they all remained unchanged. But by reducing the amount of liquidity provided at the "che...

AKP vs. Gulen Church: Tooth for tooth
TURKEY · In Brief · 17 Dec 2013 · 3 responses

Turkey was shaken to the roots today, as a nation-wide graft operation was launched, with reportedly -The sons of Ministers Muammer Guler and Zafer Caglayan, -Turkey’s most famous real estate developer Mr. Ali Agaoglu, -Halkbank GM Suleyman Aslan taken into custody. (No names confirmed officially...

Government infrastructure spending down
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 17 Dec 2013 · 2 responses

The papers today reported a 25.7% "surge" in government infrastructure spending from January to October. This is not good news. In fact, based on our calculations, the cumulative figure hides a 12.7% decline in October infra expenditures, an acceleration of the 7% fall in September. We had occasi...

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