Author Archives: LatinFinance

Investors view Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez with less skepticism now that he has toned down his populist rhetoric. But a viable economic plan is needed before he can start wooing Wall Street

February 1999

Asia’s crisis shocked investors and drove liquidity out of the market and volatility through the roof. Will Latin American debtors be able to refinance or repay their maturing obligations in 1998?

CEI Citicorp Holdings’ Handley still hooking hard in tough scrums

For Larry Summers, Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury, the first two months of 1995 passed as a blur of tense cross-border telephone calls, White House briefings and Capitol Hill negotiations. “(Mexican Finance Minister) Guillermo Ortiz and I spent so much time together that we came to recognize not just our wives’ voices but also our children’s voices,” said Summers, a key architect of the $50 billion rescue package that saved the Mexican economy. Summers’ role in the saga earned him LatinFinance’s 1996 Man of the Year title

The year 1994 was a chaotic one for Latin American financial markets. Rising US interest rates, plunging global bond markets and regional difficulties in countries such as Mexico and Venezuela put a tight clamp on capital flows to the region

The year 1995 promises to be a difficult one for Mexico. Government, banks and corporations now face a number of challenges. Astronomical domestic interest rates and severely restricted capital inflows point to a serious recession in 1995, with effects to be felt throughout the Mexican economy