Politics in Brazil: Lula’s last lap

The Economist, 01/08/2009
A freakishly popular president has only a year left before electioneering curtails his mandate. He will spend it reacting rather than reforming.
REPEATS are often disappointing. It is rare indeed to find a president in his second term with an approval rating of 80%, as Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva now enjoys. No [...]

Emerging markets: Stumble or fall?

The Economist, 01/08/2009
Will the global financial crisis halt the rise of emerging economies?
NOBODY talks about “decoupling” any more. Instead, emerging economies are sinking alongside developed ones. In 2008 emerging stockmarkets fell by more than those in the rich world, and financial woes forced countries such as Hungary, Latvia and Pakistan to go cap in hand [...]

Going South

Stephen Fidler-Financial Times, 01/09/2009
Until a few months ago, as financial and economic turmoil gripped the industrialised world, Latin America was suffused with optimism that it would escape the worst. “People ask me about the crisis and I answer, ‘go ask Bush’,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said of his US counterpart in early [...]

Emerging nations see window of opportunity

David Oakley, Roel Landingin and John Aglionby-Financial Times, 01/08/2009
Emerging market sovereign bond issuance has surged this week as governments take advantage of the dramatic drop in yields because of the sharply improving sentiment since the start of the year.
The Philippines, Turkey, Brazil and Colombia have all issued debt in the past few days, raising a [...]

Brazil well-placed for the economic storm

Nick Rice-Financial Times, 01/07/2009
At the beginning of 2008, Brazil looked to many investors like the model of decoupling. Its financial system had little crossover with US subprime or investment banking in the developed world.
Its commodity exports, particularly iron ore, looked strong in an era of rocketing prices. But 2008 also highlighted the importance of Brazilian [...]