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​Massa’s very explicit “implicit support” for Macri
ARGENTINA · In Brief · 29 Oct 2015 · 2 responses

Without mentioning Macri or Alianza Cambiemos,.Sergio Massa expressed yesterday UNA’s positions ahead of the ballotage on November 22nd. Throughout the press conference, Massa and his main political allies, such as De la Sota and Lavagna, made it clear that they would not support the official can...

Economics: Lower House Passes Revenue Bill
MEXICO · Report · 29 Oct 2015

The Chamber of Deputies last week passed the government’s proposed Federal Revenue Law for 2016 and in the process made a few changes. One of the most significant alterations involved the expected average foreign exchange rate. It was raised to 16.40 pesos to the dollar from the 15.90 level the o...

Politics: A Tale of Four State Elections
MEXICO · Report · 28 Oct 2015

The electoral calendar was shaken up late last week as the Federal Electoral Tribunal decided to annul the gubernatorial elections held in the Pacific Coast state of Colima last June, in which the incumbent PRI edged out the PAN by a mere 0.17% of the vote. The tribunal cited evidence that the cu...

Costa Rica: Government Growth Plan Skirts Key Issues
CENTRAL AMERICA · Report · 28 Oct 2015

President Luis Guillermo Solis’ growth plan includes an interest rate cut, but seems to address few key issues, concentrating instead on minor advances, and mostly silent on projected impacts or details needed to evaluate the results. Moreover, his announcement was vague on many points. Despite f...

Inflation Report: Lost in Detail
TURKEY · Report · 28 Oct 2015

The CBRT has released the last Inflation Report of the year today. The key change from the July report were the upward revisions of inflation estimates for this and next year to 7.9% (higher than the MTP’s 7.6%) and 6.5%, respectively (both mid-points), from 6.9% and 5.5% previously. The reasons ...

Polls, Government and Succession
BRAZIL POLITICS · Report · 28 Oct 2015

The latest CNT/MDA poll shows that the Dilma Rousseff Administration is still widely rejected by Brazilians. The changes in approval and disapproval came in within the margin of error (2.2 points).80.7% of interviewees disapprove of Dilma’s personal performance, while it is approved by only 15.9%.

Capital Outflow Fears Overstated
CHINA · Report · 28 Oct 2015

GDP growth and fixed asset investment both fell in Q3, and producer prices fell further, continuing their deflation cycle. GDP was up 6.9% y/y in Q3, down 0.1 pps from Q2. Industrial output was up 5.9%, down 0.4 pps. Fixed asset investment was up 6.8% y/y in September and 8.7% y/y in Q3. Quarterl...

Unemployment Rises as Economy Struggles
SOUTH AFRICA · Report · 27 Oct 2015

According to official statistics released by Stats SA (see Graph 1) South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 25.5% in the third quarter of 2015 from 25% in the second quarter. This represents a 0.5 percentage point increase for the quarter. This is not good news for the country’s economy that has...

AKP divided: Coalition or third election?
TURKEY · In Brief · 27 Oct 2015

I received another query from an esteemed reader, which asks: “Today I saw some news on Bloomberg quoting Mehmet Sahin and Ismet Yilmaz putting some risk on the possibility of a coalition involving the AKP. I would like to know if you think that the AKP will want to form a government with another...

Macri’s surprising election
ARGENTINA · Report · 27 Oct 2015

The very close results of the presidential election between the official candidate, Scioli, and its main contester, Macri, from the opposition alliance Cambiemos, represented a positive surprise for the market and a painful reality-check for the government. Scioli managed to gather 36.9% of th...

Congress Likely to Rubber Stamp Unremarkable New Budget
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC · Report · 27 Oct 2015

Economic activity continues to grow at a healthy clip, rising an estimated 7.1% in Q3 and 6.7% y/y, with accumulated January to September growth at 6.4%. Inflation in September reached 0.16%; accumulated inflation for the first nine months of the year stood at 1.33%; and y/y inflation was 0.39...

No Man’s Land
COLOMBIA · Forecast · 26 Oct 2015

The October 25 Colombian elections have shown that Colombian politics nowadays is “no man’s land”. Despite the fact that Vargas-Lleras is the front-runner for 2018, these elections left him as a lone ranger, without firm multi-party support. On the other hand, the loss by the political left in Bo...

Week of October 26
BRAZIL POLITICS · Report · 26 Oct 2015

Fiscal matters will be the focus of the week, with the release of the new public accounts deficit. The TCU may analyze the government’s “fiscal maneuvers”. In the House, we highlight the vote on the bill that allows for the repatriation of funds held by Brazilians abroad. In Brasília, the PT disc...

The Crisis and the Conflict Between Fiscal and Monetary Policies
BRAZIL ECONOMICS · Report · 26 Oct 2015

Brazil is not experiencing a balance of payments crisis: the current account deficits have been shrinking sharply and the reserves are plentiful. What exists is interplay of fiscal and political crises. The government does not have the strength to achieve the fiscal adjustment necessary to curb t...

Resolving NPLs in China
CHINA FINANCIAL · Report · 26 Oct 2015

Friday’s announcements on new monetary easing measure were expected by the market and do not imply any change in policy direction. They are largely a response to continued slowing but I do not expect them to interrupt the decline in GDP growth. - Unfortunately measures that relieve debt serv...