Daily Archives: July 21, 2011

Uruguay: wake up and smell the (high end) coffee

July 21, 2011 11:56 pm by beyondbrics
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By Janie Hulse in Buenos Aires

With half its population tracing roots to Italy, it may be surprising to learn that up until recently Uruguay’s coffee scene was limited and somewhat uninspiring. While coffee drinking is common, most Uruguayans have preferred their self-prepared thermoses of mate, a bitter herb sipped with a metal straw out of a small container.

But coffee snobs can rejoice. A recent influx of high-end Argentinean coffee chains means Uruguay’s more discerning caffeine junkies can now get their fix.  Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in LatAm, Uruguay |

Brazil’s World Cup: getting the numbers to add up

July 21, 2011 10:58 pm by Joe Leahy
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Brazil’s sports minister Orlando Silva said on Thursday a combination of factors including a hot construction industry was pushing up the cost of preparing for the soccer World Cup in 2014.

The government is building 2m new homes for its low-cost housing programme, “Minha Casa, Minha Vida”, or My House, My Life, as well as two of the world’s biggest hydropower plants. These projects and the strong economy have absorbed most of Brazil’s construction capacity, driving up costs, said Silva in a conference call with journalists.

The strange thing is that Silva’s estimates for the cost increase are so modest as to be hard to believe. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Brazil, LatAm |

Brazil’s welfare programmes drive new middle class

July 21, 2011 6:47 pm by Iona Teixeira Stevens
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Junior is nine years old and lives in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia. His father gives him R$1 – the equivalent of only 60 US cents – for lunch per day.

Fortunately, in his hometown of Lauro de Freitas on the outskirts of Salvador, the state capital, that is all you need to get a healthy meal at the Restaurante Popular – a canteen run by the municipal government that serves nutritionally balanced and extremely cheap meals aimed at low-income earners, students, retirees, the unemployed and the homeless, but which is open to everyone. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Brazil, LatAm |

Slovakia: euro boosts mortgage market

July 21, 2011 5:30 pm by Ivana Kottasová
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Slovakia EuroDespite the current moaning that adopting the euro two years ago has made the global economic crisis in Slovakia more painful than in neighbouring states outside the eurozone, the decision to join the common currency has at least saved Slovakia’s mortgage market from trouble.

In contrast to difficulties with forex loans in in Poland and Hungary, and caution in the Czech Republic, Slovakia’s housing market is motoring. Slovakia alone has seen the volume of new home loans exceeding pre-crisis levels. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Europe, Slovakia |

Sri Lanka’s economy: building bricks

July 21, 2011 4:52 pm by James Fontanella-Khan
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A Sri Lankan labour makes bricks by hand at a make-shift factory in Biyagamam, a suburb of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, on July 17, 2011. Far away from the sovereign credit doldrums affecting Europe, a small island state in the Indian ocean seems to be attracting the attention of foreign investors.

Sri Lanka raised $1bn on Thursday after its 10-year bond sale was seven times subscribed, in a sign that investors remain confident that the island’s sustained economic recovery is on track. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Sri Lanka |

Venezuela’s vinotinto – out, but not down

July 21, 2011 4:25 pm by Andrew Downie
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For Venezuelan football fans, the dream of finally winning the Copa America, the regional football competition for national teams, faded away on Wednesday night when their team was knocked out by Paraguay – which will meet Uruguay in Sunday’s final without having won a single game (it got through the knock-out rounds entirely on penalty shoot-outs).

But the team’s sponsors will still have been delighted at seeing Venezuela reach the semi-finals for the first time. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Argentina, Brazil, LatAm, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela |

TNK-BP: a $10bn claim?

July 21, 2011 3:58 pm by Stefan Wagstyl
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RosneftHere is a public proof that BP and its Russian oligarch partners in the TNK-BP joint venture are at eachother’s throats following BP’s failed attempt to get close to Rosneft, the state-controlled oil group.

BP shares fell on Thursday on news that the oligarchs had restarted legal action against the British company claiming the abortive talks with Rosneft had cost TNK-BP up to $10bn in lost opportunities.

It’s hardly a surprise given the oligarchs well-known determination. But won’t help BP grow its Russia business and it won’t help Russia develop a better reputation with foreign investors. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Europe, Russia |

Turkey: evading political heatwave?

July 21, 2011 3:09 pm by David O'Byrne
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As the Eastern Med region basks in a seasonal heat wave there are few subjects which can better guarantee raising temperatures more than that of the divided island of Cyprus.

The more so given that the Republic of Cyprus is currently sweating through lengthy power cuts following the loss of its main power Vasilikos plant – destroyed two weeks ago by an explosion in an adjacent arms dump.  So it didn’t help matters that during a trip to the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, Turkish Prime Minister Tayip Erdogan issued what amounted to an ultimatum to the Republic of Cyprus and the EU. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Europe, Turkey |

Peru’s Humala: nickname needed

July 21, 2011 1:10 pm by Naomi Mapstone
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Ollanta Humala’s tardiness in confirming key cabinet appointments has Peruvian wits wondering if their president-elect is going to adopt the bad habits of a predecessor.

“It’s been a long delay in getting this ministerial announcement. If Toledo was hora Cabana, what will we christen Humala?” former interior minister Fernando Rospigliosi tweeted late on Wednesday as night fell once more over Lima without word from Humala. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in LatAm, Peru |

Guest post: Africa – here comes the judge

July 21, 2011 12:42 pm by beyondbrics
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Neville Isdell, former ceo Coca Cola CompanyBy Neville Isdell, chairman of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa

The significant reform of many of the commercial justice systems in Africa means that the economic growth the continent has generated in recent years is likely to accelerate.

At a moment when global investors are conducting half-year reviews of where the most promising opportunities are for the next six months and beyond, the implications of this reform are worth considering.  Commercial justice reform is not the whole answer to enabling business to perform better in Africa, it is a huge contributing factor to removing the barriers that, to date, have inhibited growth. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Africa |

New York headlines

July 21, 2011 11:56 am by beyondbrics
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Brazil raises rates for fifth time

Renminbi appreciation benefits limited, IMF says

Free market champions named in Peru’s cabinet

Chinese manufacturing set to contract Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

Further reading: yuan trick pony

July 21, 2011 10:43 am by beyondbrics
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Thursday’s best picks from the beyondbrics team: why the appreciation of the renminbi won’t matter much for trade in the rest of the world, and why even when smiling the Thai king is mortal.

Also, Hungary’s communist leaders liked western films too.

Continue reading »

Posted in Global |

China: slowing slowly but IMF warns of hard landing risks

July 21, 2011 9:55 am by Stefan Wagstyl
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Hui Zhang of China falls in 2011 World Cup speed skatingChinese stocks slipped on Thursday on further evidence of a deepening slow down in the Chinese economy, with the publication of early data for July showing a widely-watched index turning negative for the first time in a year.

HSBC’s flash estimate purchasing managers’ index dropped to 48.9, a fall of 1.2 percentage points and the first drop below the neutral 50 level since July 2010.  It doesn’t signal a hard landing but it suggests Beijing’s drive to cool an over-heated economy is starting to bite.  Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in China |

Oil watchers: fear Saudi consumption

July 21, 2011 8:54 am by Camilla Hall
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Last year Khalid al-Falih, chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, sent shivers down the spine of the world’s oil market when he said that, if unchecked, domestic demand in the kingdom would increase nearly 250 per cent by 2028 to 8.3m barrels a day.

The assumption is that al-Falih was sending a message to his political masters: do something about heavily subsidised prices which distort demand or else watch Saudi Arabia’s bumper hydrocarbon revenues dissipate into the haze of a Gulf summer. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in Saudi Arabia |

S Korea Olympic boom? Perhaps not

July 21, 2011 7:20 am by Christian Oliver
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South Koreans rightfully celebrated winning the vote to host the 2018 winter Olympics. It’s simply a great thing for an often neglected country that wants to show it’s a friendly place with excellent skaters, pretty mountains and tasty après-ski barbecues.

As a former head of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Lee Myung-bak, president, also celebrated because he thinks in terms of bricks and mortar. Continue reading »

Tags: Posted in South Korea |
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