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UPCOMING WEBINAR - VENEZUELA POLITICAL BRIEFING...

Heading for the Homestretch
PHILIPPINES · Forecast · 14 May 2015

Executive Summary The government of Benigno Aquino is heading towards its last year in office basking in glowing reviews about the resilience and growth potential of the economy.As the din characteristic of pre-election Philippines grows louder, many wonder whether they will see a more active Pre...

Economics: Credit Still Flowing to Businesses
MEXICO · Report · 13 May 2015

Executive Summary In keeping with the recovery seen in internal consumption of recent months, bank credit for durable goods purchases increased in each of the first three months of 2015 and in the process capped a 14-month long contraction in the availability of such loans. However, credit issued...

Growth & Fiscal Policy Remain Largely Intact
HUNGARY · Report · 13 May 2015

Executive Summary Preliminary Q1 2015 GDP (+0.6% qoq, +3.1% yoy sda) was slightly down from last year but growth is still running at relatively high pace, due to strong consumer demand and impressive export data. The government’s 2015 GDP forecast has been raised to 3.1%, suggesting that the econ...

Politics: The New Face of Organized Crime
MEXICO · Report · 12 May 2015

Executive Summary Over the course of an eight-year government offensive against drug trafficking, the structure of organized crime has morphed and fragmented considerably. Gone are almost all of the drug cartels of yesteryear and in their place have emerged myriad criminal gangs that are more foc...

Cabinet Shuffle in Chile
CHILE · Report · 12 May 2015

Cabinet shuffles are common in Chile. Indeed, most cabinets do not survive a president’s first year of office intact. In that sense yesterday’s cabinet shuffle comes as no surprise and may even be seen as slightly overdue.

Week of May 11
BRAZIL POLITICS · Report · 11 May 2015

The House votes on another fiscal austerity measure: MP 664/14 (pension and sick leave). In the Senate, the appointment of Luiz Edson Fachin to the Supreme Court will be analyzed. On Friday, President Dilma may launch the concessions program, an attempt by the government to implement a positive a...

The Pre-Crisis Credit Boom
INDIA · Report · 11 May 2015

In Y. V. Reddy's period as governor (6/Sep/2003 to 5/Sep/2008), there was vigorous pursuit of exchange rate policy. In an attempt to defend the dollar, RBI purchased a lot of foreign assets and paid for this using rupees. These rupees distorted domestic monetary policy. At a time of the biggest e...

The Stock Market and Economic Activity
BRAZIL ECONOMICS · Report · 11 May 2015

From the way things are going now, nobody doubts that the Brazilian economy is entering a recession period. The doubt (and worry) is over how deep and how long the downturn will be. Although the recession will not be as deep as that in 2008-2009, it will probably be a good deal more persistent. N...

Weekly Tracker: May 10-16
TURKEY · Report · 10 May 2015

Executive Summary Turkish election campaigns have mutated into a three-way mudslinging match between AKP-MHP and HDP, while CHP has been marketing hugely expensive populist promises. We have a large number of polls, but they don’t increase our comfort with predictions.HDP is hovering right at the...

Managerial Decisions
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · Report · 08 May 2015

Yet another rotation, with a federal minister’s going into the Presidential Administration and a regional governor’s becoming a federal minister, shows that Putin is firmly standing by his principle of rewarding loyalty above all else, and even more so if there is external pressure. Even certain ...

Congress Takes on Corruption
MEXICO · Report · 06 May 2015

Executive Summary With inflation in check, Mexico’s internal market continued to firm through March, thanks to job growth, wages that rose 5.8% y/y in real terms in Q1, and a firming of consumer confidence that has driven stronger retail sales. The tertiary sector has been the prime beneficiary o...

Anticlimax, for now
VENEZUELA · Report · 06 May 2015

President Maduro’s May 1st announcements were underwhelming. He didn’t take over Polar or other companies but left open the risk of potential takeovers in the food sector by exhorting Polar workers to ready themselves for “big challenges”. With threatening tone he announced "the great socialist o...

Deflation Continues
CHINA · Forecast · 06 May 2015

Executive Summary Crimped by economic slowdown and weak demand, GDP growth slid to a new low in Q1, edging up just 0.3 pp from Q4 2014, to 7% y/y. Value added for major industrial firms fell 1.2 pp, to grow only 6.4% y/y. Industrial output growth took the biggest hit, falling to 5.6% y/y in March...

Volatile Signals
CHILE · Report · 05 May 2015

Executive Summary Incoming data, especially on economic activity and consumption, must be taken with a grain of salt. This is because of the two significant natural disasters that hit the country in the past two months. Their economic impact is not easy to assess. On the consumption side, i...

Michel Temer faces first big challenge
BRAZIL POLITICS · Report · 05 May 2015

The House of Representatives may vote this afternoon on the first interim measure of the fiscal adjustment: MP 665/14, on unemployment insurance and salary bonuses. The vote will be the first major test of Vice President Michel Temer. In early April he took over the government’s political coordin...