Mexico's Congress approved on Thursday early morning a historic energy reform aimed at luring foreign investment and ending the state's 75-year-old oil monopoly following a heated debate. After a marathon session that lasted nearly 24 hours, the lower house voted 353 to 134 for the legislation championed by President Enrique Peña Nieto, one day after it passed the Senate.
Over 150 representatives of British companies and businesses attended the conference on the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico) organized by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Financial Times. The Alliance is considered one of the newest and most promising political and economic blocks is emerging from Latin America.
Spanish oil group Repsol's board Wednesday backed a draft multi-billion-dollar compensation deal over Argentina's 2012 seizure of the company's YPF subsidiary. The deal seeks to repair the financial hit taken by Repsol when Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez in April 2012 ordered the seizure of Repsol's 51-percent stake in YPF.
By R. Viswanathan (*) Octavio Paz, the celebrated Mexican writer who was Ambassador to India in the sixties, wrote in his book “The Labyrinth of Solitude that the Mexican is always remote from the world and other people”. This was his conclusion after an in-depth analysis of the character and identity of the Mexicans who have inherited a mix of Aztec and Mayan Indian traditions and European culture and have been influenced overwhelmingly by the culture of US.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Latin America displayed moderate growth in the first half of this year, compared with the 2012 similar period, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The 13 countries of the region that provided data received 102.951 billion dollars, which was 6% higher than the first six months of the previous year.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its economic growth forecast for Latin America and the Caribbean, blaming, at least in part, poor infrastructure and lower commodity prices. In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF noted that emerging markets generally were facing a dampening of growth amid less supportive external conditions and domestic supply-side constraints.
The Pacific Alliance made its official presentation in New York before 200 business people and investors, mostly from the US, with four top anchor men: the presidents of Chile, Peru and Colombia and Mexico’s foreign trade minister since head of state Enrique Peña Nieto had to remain in the country because of the catastrophic floods.
Iran's trade with Argentina grew last year while trade with Brazil declined, according to an analysis by online business publication Latinvex based on data from the IMF. Iran's total trade with Latin America grew by 0.9% to 4 billion dollars in 2012. Brazil and Argentina still dominate Iran's trade with Latin America, accounting for 93% of the region's total trade with the Persian country.
YPF Chief Executive Officer Miguel Galuccio said Argentina’s nationalized energy company is willing to form a partnership with Mexico’s state-run Petroleos Mexicanos to develop shale oil and natural gas deposits in the Vaca Muerta formation.
Mexico was selected to be the official host country for World Tourism Day (WTD) 2014 and Burkina Faso for WTD 2015. The respective themes will be “Tourism and Community Development” for 2014, and “One billion tourists, one billion opportunities” for 2015