Economy & Business - July 2025

The Agência Nacional de Petróleo (ANP), Brazil’s hydrocarbons regulator, held an auction on 17 June and tendered the rights to drill for oil in 34 blocks totaling over 28,000 square km, a total area nearly the size of Belgium.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is making big business pay to help balance the budget, while reopening the mining sector to new projects and cracking down on illegal activities that finance criminal gangs.... Read More

Two leading credit rating agencies have downgraded Colombia on the back of a deteriorating budget scenario and a less predictable fiscal policy.... Read More

Bolivia’s deputy minister for industrialisation policy, Luis Siles, announced on 22 June that road blockades carried out that month by supporters of former president Evo Morales (2006-2009) had cost the country over US$250m.... Read More

Julio Velarde, president of Peru’s central bank (BCRP), issued a rare public criticism of his country’s finance ministry on 20 June.... Read More

PERU | Interest rates held.... Read More

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is reeling from the defeat in June of its revenue-boosting measures, the biggest setback to his agenda since he returned to office in January 2023.... Read More

Uruguay’s lower chamber of congress has approved an increase in the level of debt the government can raise and the amount it can spend in certain sectors, providing the government led by President Yamandú Orsi with a considerable financial cushion.... Read More

Online retailer MercadoLibre has ramped up its efforts to become Latin America’s dominant digital bank, taking on its main competitor, the Brazilian company Nubank.... Read More

REGION | Mercosur reaches trade deal with Efta bloc.... Read More

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised President Xiomara Castro’s government for its “decisive policies” and handling of the economy, but a recent survey showed that voters believe economic issues are the biggest problem facing the country.... Read More

A new academic paper raises the prospect that the deterioration of social and environmental factors, such as education, health, and security, could endanger Costa Rica’s strong record of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).... Read More

A recently approved US tax on remittances sent home by expatriate workers looks set to have a negative impact on Caribbean and Central American economies.... Read More

Economic growth in Barbados will trend down from 4% in 2024 to 2.7% this year, according to a broadly upbeat economic report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).... Read More

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (Pioj), a government office, says that quarter-on-quarter economic growth was strong in the second quarter of the year, with GDP expansion expected to be within a 0.5% to 1.5% range.... Read More

COSTA RICA | CAF approves first green liquidity line for Costa Rica.... Read More

Shockwaves rippled through Mexico’s financial system when the US imposed sanctions on three well-established financial institutions on 25 June over their alleged role in laundering money for drug cartels.... Read More

The real-world impact of US President Donald Trump’s trade war is already being felt in Mexico, as higher tariffs prompt US car manufacturer General Motors (GM) to refocus production in the US at Mexico’s expense.... Read More

Dutch multinational brewing company Heineken has announced that it will build a new brewery in Yucatán state, where local communities are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of development projects.... Read More

MEXICO | Headline inflation slows as core rates rises.... Read More