Mexico: don’t call me a currency warrior
If Wednesday’s dollar auction by Mexico’s central bank has anyone worried about whether it has finally followed in Brazil’s interventionist footsteps, they shouldn’t worry too much.
True, the auction took place as the peso slid against the dollar on fears stemming from Greece and Europe’s debt crisis was the first currency intervention since 2009. And it was the first time the bank used its dollar-auction mechanism since it was reintroduced towards the end of last year. Continue reading »
Carlos Slim: bargain hunting in Europe
The announcement this week by América Móvil that it intends to increase its share in Dutch telecoms outfit KPN to up to 28 per cent from the 4.8 per cent it has at present has all the signs of a text-book Carlos Slim move.
For years now, the Mexican telecoms tycoon and the world’s richest man, according to Forbes, has been trying to get into the European market. In 2007, his plans to buy, together with AT&T, a stake in a company that controlled Telecom Italia were foiled by local political resistance to the entry of a non-domestic player. Continue reading »
Bribery in Mexico: what’s the big deal?
The allegations, published in the New York Times over the weekend, that Walmart de México paid bribes to local officials to gain permits to build new stores have shocked markets and spooked investors.
The company’s share price plunged more than 12 per cent on the local stock market on Monday, wiping out all of the gains it had achieved so far this year. But should people really have been all that shocked? Continue reading »
Letters: the building blocks of growth
As an economist, Ricardo Hausmann has spent much of his life thinking about numbers. But over the last few years, the director of Harvard’s Center for International Development has been thinking more and more about the less tangible productive capabilities that a country produces – which he refers to as “letters”. Continue reading »
Who’s cheering for Spain?
When Argentine President Cristina Kirchner announced her intention this week to expropriate Spanish oil company Repsol’s YPF Argentine subsidiary, she received a rapturous response from the party faithful gathered to witness the event.
But there were strong applause at the other end of Latin America on Tuesday when Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s prime minister, spoke out against the plans during the opening session of the World Economic Forum in Mexico. Continue reading »
Mexico’s earthquakes: gaining a few, valuable seconds
First there was the world’s largest ice rink. Then there were the beaches, complete with sand and plastic palms. Most recently, there was the tallest Christmas tree.
Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City’s mayor, is rarely short of an idea. And this week, as an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale shook Mexico’s capital, he had another: a smartphone app that alerts residents to forthcoming tremors. Continue reading »
Mexico tourism: the future looks bright
To drop in on this year’s Tianguis Turístico in the Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Vallarta is to witness the growth, and growing diversity, of Mexico’s tourism sector.
Even one full day before it concludes on Wednesday, the annual tourism trade fair has surpassed expectations, with 7,000 businesses and travel associations in attendance compared with about 4,000 last year. Continue reading »
Mexico to Argentina: take a hike
Only the Argentines know why they still have not asked formally for a renegotiation of a trade agreement on cars that it has with Mexico.
This week, the country’s minister of industry said that the country would seek to do exactly that – presumably in an attempt to piggy-back on the example of Brazil, which last week renegotiated its own car agreement with Mexico to cap Mexican exports for the next three years.
But while Buenos Aires’ silence on the issue so far is unclear, one thing is crystal: the answer they will receive if and when they finally do get around to asking is going to be a big fat No. Continue reading »
Auto fight: Argentina wants a piece of Mexico too
The news on Tuesday that Argentina will seek to renegotiate a bilateral trade deal on cars with Mexico could hardly have taken anyone by surprise.
In recent months, Buenos Aires has tried to halt the rise of imports in an attempt to protect its trade balance. After witnessing Brazil’s successful renegotiation last week of its own trade deal with Mexico, it must have felt that it would be crazy not to try the same. Continue reading »
Brazil Mexico 1: Mexico wins, sort of
Did Mexico lose its battle with Brazil? That is what many pundits think happened after the two countries on Thursday settled a month-long wrangle over car exports that had, as its centre, the threat from Brazil to end a 2002 agreement on free trade in light vehicles.
Observers were quick to point out that Mexico had vowed to set 2011 export levels as a floor for any agreement on capping future car exports to Brazil. Clearly, that did not happen. Continue reading »
Texas: Mexico’s party pooper
Someone’s not listening to Mexico’s message on tourism. For the past couple of years, officials from Latin America’s second-largest economy have been jetting around the world to talk to counterparts, tour operators and airlines to promote Mexico as a tourist destination.
The main message is that practically all of Mexico’s tourist destinations are safe places to spend your vacation. And almost all of them are a long way from the violence that has been rising as a consequence of the government’s crackdown on organised crime.
But on Tuesday, the state of Texas issued a blanket travel warning – for the third consecutive year – telling residents not to travel to Mexico during the upcoming spring break. Continue reading »
Bond investors can’t get enough of Mexico
The lesson that doing your homework, and doing it well, pays off has been somewhat of a theme for Mexico this month. That was the main message of Richard Fisher, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, when he used a recent visit to the country’s stock market to lavish praise on Mexico’s handling of its public finances.
And it was the underlying theme of Monday’s US$2bn dollar-denominated bond issue, Mexico’s second outing to the international markets this year. Continue reading »
Mexico retail: when a drop isn’t a drop
If ever you were looking for misleading statistics, check out Mexico’s December retail sales, which showed a 2.6 fall compared with the previous month.
That, as Reuters reported, was the sharpest month-on-month drop since May 2009, and would seem to indicate dark clouds gathering over Mexico’s economic recovery. Except that there are no dark clouds – at least not yet. Continue reading »
Mexico’s Femsa eyes Coca-Cola’s Philippines unit
The announcement this week that Coca-Cola Femsa, the world’s largest public bottler of Coca-Cola by sales volume, had entered a 12-month exclusivity agreement with Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Company to explore the possibility of buying its Philippines unit could be a pretty sweet deal.
For a start, it would continue the Mexican company’s recent acquisition spree. Last year, the company, which is 54 per cent owned by Monterrey-based Fomento Económico Mexicano (Femsa) and 32 per cent owned by The Coca-Cola Company, expanded rapidly at home, using 24.5bn pesos in new stock to snap up three local bottlers. Continue reading »
Grupo Elektra: selling to the poor pays
Photo: Bloomberg
What a week it has been for Grupo Elektra, the electrical-goods retailer and low-income bank controlled by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.
Just a couple of days after the company announced the acquisition of Advance America, a leading US lender, it reported a huge leap in fourth-quarter profits on Friday. Net income came in at about 11.1bn pesos compared with 2.4bn pesos during the same quarter a year before. Continue reading »
| About this blog | Headlines email | Blog guide |
| Regulars | Series | Archive |
Older entries
Stefan Wagstyl
Josh Noble
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh