Latin America's GDP growth is projected to increase to 2.2% in 2018 from 1.3% in 2017. The Pink Tide has receded for the moment, giving rise to more centre right governments in the region. In 2018, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Venezuela will have presidential elections. Venezuela’s political and economic tragedy could get worse.
By Rengaraj Viswanathan (*) Mauricio Macri’s win will inspire the centre-right opposition parties that hope to replace leftist governments in Brazil and Venezuela but it is too early to declare, as some observers are doing, that the result marks the end of the Left in the region
By R Viswanathan (*) The Leftist coalition candidate Michelle Bachelet won 47% of the votes in the presidential elections held on 17 November while her rightist rival Evelyn Matthei got just 25% votes.
Jindal’s integrated mining and steel project in Bolivia was the largest contract secured by an Indian company in Latin America. The project, which ultimately became a victim of the country's domestic politics, has lessons for Indian companies venturing into Latin America.
Aditya Birla Group is a late entrant to Latin America and came very much later than the Tatas and Reliance, the other big iconic Indian business groups. However Birla has made up for lost time by emerging as the Indian company with the largest annual business turnover in Latin America, which was around 1.8 billion dollars last year. Birla is also the largest investor from the Indian private sector in Latin America.
While the ouster of Paraguay’s president is a setback to the young democracy of the country, it shouldn’t be viewed as a repeat of Latin America’s history of coup d’états. The painful process of democratic maturity will continue, albeit slowly.
The newly-formed Pacific Alliance bloc seems more like a political club to counterbalance the Atlantic-facing, Brazil-led Mercosur group. However, the bloc accounts for 30% of India’s trade with Latin America. Can India engage the group so it is not left out from their Asia focus?
By R.Viswanathan - I had the most unusual night club experience in Argentina last weekend when I was in “Groove” one of the trendiest night clubs of Buenos Aires. The DJ was not playing Salsa, Samba or Reggaton. Instead, the club was vibrating with Sanskrit songs...