In a year marked by political change across the globe, the closing weeks of 2016 delivered yet another moment of significant upheaval. Following weeks of public protest, South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye on December 9, while the first public hearing to kick off the trial was scheduled for January 3, 2017.
Chile, one of Latin America’s most resilient economies, has not been shielded from recent global headwinds, such as low commodity prices and slow growth of key trading partners. Even so, the country is well equipped to exploit the opportunities of economic diversification, banking partnership and international trade.
Brazil’s demise has been remarkable. Nearly every major macroeconomic indicator is at historically undesirable levels at present, from unemployment to inflation, and from GDP (gross domestic product) growth to public debt.
2016 is the year that the Olympic Games come to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The world will descend on a country going through its worst economic crisis since at least the 1930s.
Chile is clearly one of Latin America’s success stories, with a strong, robust and open economy. Although high world copper prices did contribute to the swelling of its state coffers, avoidance of Dutch disease and the economy’s move towards a greatly
The “Mexican moment” sizzled and fizzed in 2013, then quickly fizzled out. The effervescence obscured a more fundamental truth: thanks to the 2013 structural reforms, Mexico is at an inflection point, just as it was when NAFTA took effect in 1994.
Brazil’s state-controlled, multinational oil and gas giant, Petrobras, has fallen dramatically both in prestige and finances in recent months, bringing down the reputations of many of the nation’s top politicians and lawmakers with it, including the leaders of both chambers of Congress.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, it became clear that banking resolution was one of the key aspects of the necessary reform of financial regulation, with the objective of reducing the cost of banking crises and avoiding the use of taxpayers’ money. In the case of global banks, the cross-border dimension added a new layer of complexity to these debates.