Latin American economies enjoy strong spring
The Brazilian real rose to a 35-month high while Mexico's inflation slowed for the first time since January. Between December 6 and March 16, Brazil's central bank sold reals for dollars as record trade inflows pushed the real to its strongest level since May 2002. In just the past two months the real has gained 13%. Furthermore, the country pushed its 12-month trade surplus to $37.77 billion through April. In Mexico, inflation slowed as a series of interest rate hikes curbed economic growth. The first quarter growth of Mexico's $633 billion economy was about 3%, while fourth quarter growth was 4.9%. The annual inflation rate rose 0.21% points to 4.6% in March while the core index rate fell 0.15% points to 3.46%. April's 0.36% point rise in inflation exceeded economists' forecasts of 0.24%. A 9.9% surge in fruit and vegetable prices played a large part in April's inflation hike Meanwhile, Mexico's peso dropped 0.2% from a 14-month high to 10.9660 per dollar. Elsewhere, Chile's peso rose 0.2% to 572.13 per dollar, Colombia's peso gained 0.1% to 2336 per dollar, and Argentina's peso rose 0.1% to 2.8960 per dollar.