Chile

By Win Thin and Ilan Solot Despite the growing tensions in Thailand and the risk of military involvement, equity indices stared off the week higher and THB stable. There is some optimism that a possible delay to the February 2 vote could…

The US dollar is broadly mixed against the majors and EMs after the market appears to have shrugged off Moody’s downgrades of European sovereigns. Central banks ability to surprise the market remains intact, even in these trying times. It…

FX intervention is certainly in the air this week for Latin America. Brazil stands out as the most aggressive, of course, as the central bank intervened in the forward market Friday and in the spot market Monday.

If the strongest argument against going back to the Drachma always was that this would imply default, now that default is coming, why not allow Greece to devalue? As Krugman says, the issue isn’t whether Greece would openly decide to exit…

The easy stance of developed economy central banks is driving money into emerging markets and fostering the accommodative stance of those central banks, fearful of more hot money flows or currency appreciation. Easy money in the face of…

In Peru, populist candidate Ollanta Humala won the most votes in the weekend presidential vote in Peru, winning 29.3% so far with 75% of the ballots counted. By falling far short of the 50% + 1 needed to win, a second round vote will be…

by Win Thin Chile peso is the worst performer today vs. the dollar, down 5% after the central bank announced plans to buy $12 bln in order to weaken the currency. The bank plans to buy $50 mln a day from January 5 to February 9, with…

Manuel Marfán, vice-governor of the Central Bank of Chile, told CNBC Europe Tuesday that the Chileans are concerned about what is happening in the currency markets. He said their first responsibility was to be "good global…

from BBH's Win Thin on capital controls in Brazil Finance Minister Mantega said that Brazil is considering a tax on short-term fixed income investments but not on long-term. No further details were given, but he noted that the central bank…

Fears that the global recovery is faltering is unlikely to prevent Chile's central bank from hiking rates tomorrow.  It had hiked rates last month and the data since has been strong and economists have generally revised higher growth…