GDP: + 7.6% in March compared to last year (lower than expected), +0.9% over February
Consumer Prices: + 8.9% in April (11.6% a year ago)
Industrial Production: + 6.8% in April over last year, + 0.5% over March
Unemployment: 9.7% in Q1
Trade Balance: + $11.4 billion April for the latest 12 months; foreign reserves have soared to $40.0 billion as of May 22
Currency: Peso 3.09 to US$1 as of May 23 (Peso 3.08 to US$1 a year ago)
Steel Production: 473,000 mt in April or - 1.4% compared to last year. Year to date, at the end of April, 1.701 million mt were produced or 7.7% less than last year.
Special Focus: As reported earlier, there is a crisis at the Statistics Institute which, among others, keeps track of price developments. President Kirchner arbitrarily replaced the head official, triggering a one day walk out of the entire staff. A key price measure was changed from + 3.6% to - 0.2%. Private think tanks claim that prices rose a lot more than officially announced last month and that the official numbers of this institute cannot be trusted any longer.
GDP: + 3.8% in Q4. The revised projection for 2007 is + 4.1%
Consumer Prices: +3.0% in April (4.6% last year); however, consumer prices in the 30 days to May 15 climbed an unexpectedly high 0.26%.
Industrial Production: + 3.9% in March
Unemployment: 10.1% in March
Trade balance: + $46.7 billion in April
Currency: Real 1.94 to US$1 as of May 23 (Real 2.34 to US$1 a year ago). With an inflation rate of 3.0% and the benchmark interest rate still at 12.5%, the Real's appreciation against the dollar seems to have no limit. In the last twelve months, no other currency advanced as much against the US dollar as the Real did. As a result, Brazil's export prices will be less competitive.
Steel Production: 2.708 million mt in April or 12.1% ahead of last year's pace. Year to date, at the end of April, 10.703 million mt were produced or 11.5% more than last year.
Special Focus: Based on the solid economic performance, Brazil's credit rating was upgraded by Standard & Poor's to BB+. It is expected to be reevaluated early next year to BBB-, which is an investment grade. Currently, only Mexico and Chile enjoy this status in Latin America
GDP: + 6.5% in March from last year, the fastest rate since June 2005
Consumer Prices: + 2.5% in April (3.8% a year ago)
Industrial Production: + 5.2% in March
Unemployment: 6.7% in March
Interest Rate: In April, the Central Bank held the benchmark rate lending rate at 5% for the fourth month in a row.
Trade Balance: + $24.0 billion in April for the latest 12 months, and $2.6 billion in April alone, which is higher than expected
Currency: Peso 525 to US$1 May 23 (Peso 532 to US$1 a year ago)
Copper Price: US$3.33 per lb as of May 29
GDP: + 11.8% in Q4
Consumer Prices: + 19.4% in April (11.4% a year ago)
Industrial Production: + 6.7% in January
Trade Balance: + $33.0 billion in Q4
Crude Oil Production: fell to 2.35 million barrels a day in April thus continuing the steady decline. The average production in 2005 was 2.71 million b/d. In 2006 it was 2.56 million b/d and in Q1 2007 it was 2.35 million b/d.
Currency: Bolivar 2,147 to US$1 as of May 23 (Bolivar 2,565 to US$1 a year ago). These are the officially quoted rates; the more realistic, though unofficial, one has the Bolivar way over 3,000 to the US$1.
Steel Production: 465,000 mt (e) in April or 11.7% ahead of last year. Year to date up to end of April 1.779 million mt were produced or 6.1% ahead of last year. The threats by President Chavez against Sidor, Venezuela's largest steel manufacturer, have calmed down somewhat in the past couple of weeks. Mr. Chavez spun his initial statement of possible nationalization to the effect that he just wanted the Sidor executives to know that they cannot conduct their business in Venezuela the way they might be used to doing in other countries. Sidor's largest shareholder is Argentina's Ternium S.A.
Regional Issues:
Venezuela / Argentina / Bolivia: These countries will start a regional bank on June 26 with the aim to replace the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This has been a pet project of Venezuela's president Chavez who hopes that other Latin American countries will join.
Brazil / Bolivia: Bolivia's government has taken more control over its natural resources. In the process, it forced Brazil's Petrobras to renegotiate the existing exploration contract. Petrobras wants to get out of Bolivia and sell its refineries for $112 million. The Bolivian government wants to pay $60 million. Talks are continuing. Bolivia supplies about half of Brazil's need for natural gas.