By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador, the world’s biggest grower of flavored beans used in fine chocolate, will probably lose about 15 percent of this year’s cocoa crop after heavy rains hurt farms in the Andean nation’s coastal region, the National Cocoa Exporters Association said. Anecacao, as the association is known, reduced its 2015 forecast… Read More Ecuador Cocoa Forecast Cut to 230,000 Tons After Rains Hit Crops
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s attempt to defuse nationwide protests by back-tracking on two controversial tax proposals failed to prevent opposition supporters marching for a ninth straight day Tuesday. Protesters gathered in the capital city, Quito, less than 24 hours after Correa called for calm and announced he would delay plans… Read More Correa’s Back-Track on Tax Bills Fails to Halt Ecuador Protests
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador’s home-grown digital currency is nothing to fear. At least that’s the conclusion of analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to Credit Suisse Group AG and Nomura Securities International Inc. The country’s bonds fell last week after the government ordered banks to start accepting a new electronic tender it created… Read More JPMorgan Says Not to Worry as Ecuador Promotes Digital Currency
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador, which uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, will require banks to offer services tied to a government-created electronic coin. Lenders with assets greater than $1 billion as of Dec. 31 have 120 days to fulfill the requirement, while smaller banks will get as long as a year,… Read More Ecuador Requiring Banks to Offer Electronic Currency Services
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Enrique Perez, who’s been building homes for most of his life in Ecuador, is finally going to make one for himself. Perez is an unlikely beneficiary of the plunge in crude prices. That prompted Ecuador, an OPEC nation, to offer mortgage subsidies to people like Perez, a construction worker. Ecuador… Read More South America’s Commodity Rout Spurs Public Spending on Housing
By Nathan Gill and David Wethe (Bloomberg) — Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. and Repsol SA, Ecuador’s two biggest foreign oil producers, are shelving plans to drill exploratory wells amid a payment dispute with the OPEC nation’s government, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Andes, owned by China National Petroleum Corp. and… Read More China’s Andes Said to Join Repsol in Ecuador Oil Drilling Freeze
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador’s congress approved changes to the Andean nation’s labor laws on Tuesday, including the removal of a government subsidy meant to cover almost half of state pensioners’ monthly payments. Lawmakers approved the measure proposed by President Rafael Correa in a 91-to-29 vote, while government supporters and political opposition groups looked… Read More Ecuador Approves New Labor Law With Changes to Public Pensions
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo LLC, a Boston-based money manager, dismissed its lawsuit against Ecuador over debt the nation defaulted on six years ago. The parties agreed to dismiss the suit filed in December in Manhattan federal court, agreeing that each side would pay its own costs and… Read More GMO Settles With Ecuador Over Bonds That Defaulted in 2009
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill(Bloomberg) — Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo LLC, a Boston-based money manager, dismissed its lawsuit against Ecuador over debt the nation defaulted on six years ago. The parties agreed to dismiss the suit filed in December in Manhattan federal court, agreeing that each side would pay its own costs and that… Read More GMO Settles With Ecuador Over Bonds That Defaulted Six Years Ago
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Six years ago, Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s government denounced the 10 percent in annual interest the country paid on its bonds as “usury.” So when the 51-year-old former economics professor was willing to pay 10.5 percent in a sale of notes this month, it raised speculation the… Read More World’s Costliest Bond Sale in Decade Shows Ecuador Cash Crunch
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — The rate of growth in Ecuador, South America’s seventh biggest economy, slowed for a third year in 2014 as falling crude oil prices and a refinery shutdown offset gains from higher fishing and electricity output. Gross domestic product rose 3.8 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, less than the… Read More Ecuador GDP Growth Slowed in 2014 for Third Year on Oil Decline
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador got $924 million in previously undisclosed loans from Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders, showing the extent of President Rafael Correa’s effort to line up a record amount of financing as oil prices plunge. The country took $181 million in two separate loans from units of Deutsche Bank and… Read More Ecuador Discloses Loans From Wall Street, China as Oil Sinks
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Union Andina de Cementos SAA, Peru’s biggest cement supplier, expects growth in exports will help offset weakening demand from local miners. Overseas sales of clinker, an ingredient in cement production, will surge 18 percent to about 500,000 metric tons this year, Ricardo Rizo Patron, chairman of the company, said Wednesday… Read More Peru Top Cement Maker Unacem Says Exports to Offset Mining Slump
By Katia Porzecanski and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador sold $750 million of five-year bonds overseas to meet its financing needs amid a plunge in the price of crude oil. The country sold the securities to yield 10.5 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked… Read More Ecuador Said to Sell $750 Million of Five-Year Bonds at 10.5%
(Originally published by Bloomberg News) By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — When President Rafael Correa defaulted on most of Ecuador’s overseas debt in 2008, he disparaged bondholders as “true monsters.” Now, he’s increasingly dependent on their goodwill. Ecuador hired Citigroup Inc. to arrange meetings with investors to gauge demand for what… Read More Monsters of Bond Market Now Correa Go-To as China Is Not Enough
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — President Rafael Correa’s resourcefulness in the face of sinking oil prices has made Ecuador a favorite among emerging-market bond investors this year. To AllianceBernstein and Capital Economics, Correa needs to do more to ensure that the goodwill doesn’t prove fleeting. The nation’s debt securities returned 4.9 percent as Correa said… Read More Bondholder Love for Ecuador’s Correa Is Questioned: Andes Credit
By Nathan Gill(Bloomberg) — President Rafael Correa, a former economics professor critical of Ecuador’s use of the dollar as its official currency, said the greenback is worsening the impact of falling crude prices as liquidity in the economy contracts. The reliance on the dollar means the government can’t print more money to increase the amount… Read More Ecuador’s Dollar Reliance Worsens Impact of Oil, Correa Says
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Nicolas Maduro and Rafael Correa are both socialist disciples of the late Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, but only one is managing to convince bondholders he’s got the ability to weather the collapse in oil prices. While Chavez’s handpicked successor Maduro is struggling to ward off a default, Ecuador counterpart Correa… Read More Bondholders Embracing Chavez’s Disciple in Ecuador: Andes Credit
(Originally published by Bloomberg News) By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — Ecuador, an OPEC nation that relies on crude for about a quarter of revenue, obtained enough financing from China to avoid deeper budget cuts even as its oil price fell below $40 a barrel, Finance Minister Fausto Herrera said. The Latin American country expects total… Read More China Rescues Ecuador Budget From Deeper Cuts as Crude Drops
By Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — The Export-Import Bank of China granted Ecuador a $5.3 billion credit line after a slide in oil to an almost six-year low prompted spending cuts for the OPEC member. Finance Minister Fausto Herrera said in a statement published today in the president’s official gazette that the Andean nation will use… Read More Ecuador Gains $5.3 Billion Credit Line From China as Oil Tumbles
Not even the endangered white-bellied spider monkey can escape the lingering consequences of Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s decision to default on $3.2 billion of debt four years ago. … Read More White-Bellied Spider Monkey Losing to $18 Billion of Oil
Nathan Gill and Randall WoodsJune 19, 2012 Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group Wikileaks, sought asylum at Ecuador’s Embassy in London after exhausting his options through British courts to avert extradition to Sweden. Ecuador is studying the request and is in contact with the U.K. government, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in Quito… Read More Wikileaks Founder Assange Seeks Asylum at Ecuador’s U.K. Embassy
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan and Nathan Gill (Bloomberg) — The U.S. expelled Ecuador’s ambassador to Washington today in retaliation for the expulsion of the top U.S. diplomat in the South American country. Within hours, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa accused the U.S. of infiltrating his country’s police. Ecuador on April 5 expelled the U.S. ambassador to… Read More U.S. Expels Envoy From Ecuador, President Correa Slams U.S.
Nathan Gill and Alex EmerySeptember 30, 2010, 9:00 PM GMT-5 Ecuador declared a state of emergency as hundreds of police protesting wage cuts blocked roads, shut the airport for several hours and sprayed teargas on President Rafael Correa. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez backed Correa’s claim that he was the target of an organized coup attempt,… Read More Ecuador’s Protesting Police Lay Siege to President
By Nathan Gill Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Spain’s stock-market regulator needs an up to 20 percent staff increase to improve market supervision, the regulator’s chief said. Spain will need to add personnel over the next three years to better regulate markets and fulfill its obligations with the European Union, Julio Segura, the president of Spain’s… Read More Spain’s Segura Says CNMV Needs Up to 20% Staff Boost
By Nathan Gill Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) — Chilean banks’ combined profit increased 7 percent in September from the previous month after demand for lending rose amid signs of an economic recovery. Net income in the nine months through September was 849 billion pesos ($1.6 billion), Chile’s banking regulator, known as the SBIF, wrote in an… Read More Chilean Banks’ Combined Profit Rises 7% in September
By Nathan Gill and James Attwood Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) — Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA, Chile’s biggest power generator, said third-quarter profit surged 56 percent after it lowered costs. Net income rose to 178 billion pesos ($336 million) from 114 billion pesos a year earlier, the company known as Endesa Chile said today in a… Read More Endesa Chile Earnings Increase 56% on Lower Costs
By Nathan Gill Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) — Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, Chile’s biggest fertilizer producer, tumbled to the lowest price in seven weeks after reporting a 57 percent drop in third-quarter profit. The Santiago-based company, known as Soquimich, retreated 2 percent in Santiago trading to 19,470 pesos, the lowest since Sept. 7.… Read More Chile’s Soquimich Falls to Seven-Week Low on Earnings Decline
By James Attwood and Nathan Gill Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, Chile’s biggest fertilizer producer, reported a 57 percent drop in third-quarter profit as lower prices dragged down sales. Net income fell to $82.3 million from $191 million a year earlier, the Santiago-based company known as Soquimich wrote today… Read More Soquimich Profit Drops 57% on Lower Fertilizer Sales
By Nathan Gill Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — Chilean Finance Minister Andres Velasco said the country’s economy should have a “vigorous” recovery after it suffered its worst slump in at least a decade. Forecasts for 2010 economic growth are improving and Chile’s labor market is recovering as consumption expands and demand for the country’s exports grows,… Read More Velasco Says Chile Economic Recovery to Be ‘Vigorous’
By Nathan Gill and James Attwood Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — Lan Airlines SA, Latin America’s biggest air carrier by market value, reported a 37 percent drop in third-quarter profit on lower sales and a fuel hedge loss. Net income fell to $52.1 million from $83 million a year earlier, the Santiago-based airline wrote in a… Read More Lan Profit Falls 37% on Lower Sales, Fuel Hedge Loss
By Nathan Gill Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — Celfin Capital SA, a Santiago, Chile-based brokerage and investment bank, announced plans to create a carbon trading exchange in the country. The Santiago Climate Exchange is a joint venture with Fundacion Chile, a government-sponsored entity promoting technological innovation, to encourage voluntary carbon reduction projects, Celfin Chairman Juan Andres… Read More Celfin Capital to Start Chile Carbon Credit Exchange
By Matt Craze and Nathan Gill Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd. workers at the company’s Spence copper mine in Chile broke off wage talks with management, according to a union official. Workers at the mine, who began the 14th day of a strike today, will stage protests after government-mediated talks failed, union President… Read More BHP Spence Copper Workers End Chile Wage Negotiations
