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Ecuador mining: goodbye Kinross, hello China Inc?
It looked like a great idea on paper: change the law in order to attract more investments into the mining industry and diversify the economy away from a dependence on oil exports.
But that ambition was dealt a major blow on Monday after Canada’s Kinross Gold Corporation said it would scrap plans on a $1.3bn mining project in southeastern Ecuador because of a dispute with the government over a hefty windfall tax on revenues of 70 per cent. Continue reading »
Ecuador: we want more mining
Ecuador, the smallest of the OPEC members, is working hard to diversify away from a dependence on oil exports.
So now the country’s leftwing president, Rafael Correa, is pushing for a new law to fast track mining contracts and investments in the Andean country. Continue reading »
Spain’s economic crisis is writ large in the Inter-American Development Bank’s latest statistics on remittance flows to Latin America.
For years, thousands of Bolivians, Ecuadoreans and Colombians have been among those to seek work in Spain, legally or illegally. Whether young educated professionals, or poor maids, cleaners and construction labourers, these workers could see the advantages of saving Euros that would magically multiply back home into pesos or dollars or bolivianos. Continue reading »
Ecuador punts its oil bidding round but China may be only taker
Ecuador is licensing a chunk of the Amazon. After touring Asia, Europe and North America, the Andean country’s government has extended from late May to mid-July a deadline by which bid for oil blocks located in the southeast of the country must be submitted.
The government says this will give companies more time to appraise the region’s geology and fill out the necessary paperwork. To some, it could suggest Ecuador had received less interest than initially hoped for. Continue reading »
Corporate watch: República del Cacao on the origin of taste
Looking much like the sketches from Charles Darwin’s “Voyage of the Beagle”, the wrapper illustrations on the chocolate bars made by Ecuador’s República del Cacao make much of the traditions and history of Ecuadorian chocolate, and of the adventures and journeys of discovery made by its pioneer chocolatiers.
Now República del Cacao is embarking from its own humble origins on a similar voyage of discovery. Continue reading »
“Chocolate” and “shortage” should never appear in the same sentence.
But as the Chinese say, in every crisis, there is opportunity.
And as Chinese taste buds are one of the biggest new drivers of global cocoa demand, it’s apt that a merchant bank focused on trade between China and Latin America has identified cocoa as a “very good bet” for long-term investors. Continue reading »
[snap]: Ecuador eyes bond issue
To the list of unusual names that have been tapping the international bond market, investors could soon add this: Ecuador.
The Andean country’s finance minister, Fausto Herrera, said on Friday he plans to launch an exchange offer for holdout creditors – a move that could pave the way for a new sovereign bond sale. Continue reading »
Ecuador to US: no more investment protection for you!
After winning re-election last month, Ecuador’s firebrand president, Rafael Correa, vowed to deepen his socialist revolution and make it irreversible.
He is already taking steps: this week he presented a bill asking lawmakers to terminate an investment protection treaty with the US. Continue reading »
Correa: spending his way to 3rd term?
Having coffee on the fifth floor of a building in the northern part of Quito can be quite an experience. Your mug (and your chair) will tremble every twenty minutes or so. The reason is not earthquakes, but the roar jets of flights.
All that could change next week. Ecuador’s government is moving the airstrip to a new airport in Tababela, 18km outside the capital’s centre, via a public private partnership deal worth over $600m according to government officials Continue reading »
By John Paul Rathbone and Keith Fray
Why did Hugo Chávez win last October’s presidential election so resoundingly? One simple answer is that he spent his way to re-election. In the run-up to the vote, government spending increased by a whopping 25 per cent, and that’s in real terms. No wonder Venezuela is now suffering from a yawning fiscal deficit and has just devalued.
But what about the rest of the region? After so many decades of populist-fuelled booms and busts, has it finally brought the political-cycle to heel? Beyondbrics wrapped a cold towel around its head and examined the statistics. Not every country passed. Continue reading »
Ecuador banks: not so happy days
It is not easy being a bank in Ecuador these days.
Not only has the combined profit of the Andean country’s private banks dropped 21 per cent last year as the government of leftwing president, Rafael Correa, tightened its grip on the sector. But elsewhere, the industry is being probed for telling customers that a bank tax bill proposed by Correa to fund welfare programmes would undermine the country’s financial system. Continue reading »
Ecuador: time to hit the international bond markets?
Ecuador is on the brink of its biggest budget deficit on record. So there is talk of the Andean country biting the bullet and tapping the international debt markets for the first time since defaulting over four years ago.
Rafael Correa, the leftwing president seeking his second re-election next month, has been driving growth thanks to tax collection and public spending as the price of oil, which is Ecuador’s main source of revenue, has been losing steam. Could it happen? Continue reading »
Ecuador: who needs an economics degree (except the central bank boss…)?
It seems in every family there are secrets and lies.
On Wednesday afternoon, Pedro Delgado, the cousin of Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, and the Andean country’s central bank president, stepped down after confessing that he did not hold a university degree in economics.
“I submit my irrevocable resignation as head of the central bank… and I do it because I made a grave mistake 22 years ago,” Delgado said. Continue reading »
Ecuador: too small of a fish to fry for vulture funds
The ballyhoo over a New York court ruling ordering Argentina to pay $1.3bn to holdout creditors, has raised questions over whether Ecuador could also be dragged to court by so-called vulture funds.
Unfortunately for some bondholders, but luckily for Ecuador’s government, it seems very unlikely, at least according to some commentators consulted by beyondbrics. Continue reading »
Ecuador’s banks brace for new tax
Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president
Banks in Ecuador are bracing themselves for a new tax on the sector designed to boost welfare payments by about $150m a year.
A bill paving the way for the tax is expected before Ecuador’s congress in the next few weeks, where it is likely to be waved through by legislators hoping to be returned to congress at general elections in February. Continue reading »
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