Emerging Markets

Brazil’s Electoral Court Bars Pablo Marçal From Debates, TV Time and Public Funds

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court unanimously barred presidential candidate Pablo Marçal from debates, free broadcast slots and pu…

A Small Nigerian Refinery Has Been About to Start Making Petrol Since 2024

Aradel says petrol output at its Ogbele refinery will start in 2027. The same 3,000-barrel unit was called mechanically complete i…

Nigeria Approved a US$45 Million Rail Link to Its Lagos Ports. Almost Nobody Noticed

Nigeria approved a US$45.3 million rail link to four Lagos ports in February 2025. The Dangote refinery is why it matters, and it …

Egypt Sets New Rules for Short Selling on the EGX Stock Exchange

Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority issued Board Resolution 155 of 2026 on 19 August, a full rulebook for securities lending an…

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival Names Ten Films, Led by Berlin’s Golden Bear

The ninth El Gouna Film Festival has announced the first ten titles of its October programme in Egypt, led by this year's Golden B…

Republic of the Congo Oil Contracts Lock In a US$90 Windfall Trigger

The Republic of the Congo's Council of Ministers approved four bills on 18 August 2026 fixing a single US$90-a-barrel windfall tri…

Exxon Commits US$1.1 Billion to Mozambique’s Rovuma LNG Before Final Decision

The Area 4 partners have awarded about US$1.1 billion in pre-investment contracts for Rovuma LNG in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, mont…

Foreigners Pulled US$2.4 Billion Out of Brazil’s Stock Market in a Single Week, the Most on Record

Foreign investors sold a net R$12.6 billion of Brazilian shares in the week to 14 August, the heaviest week on record in a series …

Mexico’s State Power Company Wants to Borrow Up to US$1.2 Billion at Home, Some of It for Forty Years

Mexico's state power company is preparing to sell up to 20 billion pesos, about US$1.2 billion, in three bonds at once, one of the…

Chile Stopped Two Highway Awards Just Before Signing, and Spain’s Builders Are Getting Nervous

Chile froze the award decrees for two Biobio road corridors at the last procedural step, suspending Azvi's provisional adjudicatio…

Nigeria Cement Prices Probed as Regulator Summons the Biggest Producers

Nigeria cement prices rose from about US$7 a bag in January to as much as US$11 by July. The FCCPC has summoned the country's bigg…

Argentina Just Told Banks How to Lend Dollars to Companies That Do Not Earn Them

Argentina's central bank published the rules for lending dollars to companies that do not earn them, capping the regime at 15% of …

SQM Will Spend US$3 Billion by 2028, Most of It on One Salt Flat

SQM told its second-quarter call it expects about US$3 billion of capital spending across 2026 to 2028, centred on the Salar Futur…

Venezuela’s Oil Minister Went to Houston and Signed Two Deals

Venezuela's oil minister signed agreements with SLB and Hunt Oil in Houston and told investors the country is ready to sign produc…

Chile Fines a Santiago Broker for Faking Its Own Accounts

The regulator says the firm booked a badly issued cheque as collected, making its equity and solvency look better than they were. …

Paraguay Wants a Quarter of Mercosur’s EU Export Quotas

The four Mercosur countries have not agreed how to split the quotas the bloc won from Brussels. Paraguay wants them divided in equ…

Honduras Puts 75 Municipalities on Red Alert Over Drought

Crops are failing and livestock are dying of thirst. The president says the crisis will run into March or April next year. The pos…

Izzi and Megacable Have Taken 1.2 Million Phone Lines

The lines are all postpaid, and almost all of them came from the three incumbent operators. The data comes from the regulator's ow…

Ecuador Plans Its First Banana Shipment to Brazil in Years

The market has been shut for almost seven years. Exporters say a trial shipment is being prepared for the coming months. The post …

Colombia’s Trade Gap Nearly Doubled in June as Imports Surged

Imports rose more than a quarter against last June. Exports did not keep pace, and the monthly gap widened sharply. The post Colom…

Brazil’s 12% Mortgage Rate Cap Is Suddenly Up for Discussion

A central bank regulator told a housing finance summit that the long-standing ceiling may not survive contact with market funding.…

Vale Puts ABB Robotics Into More Iron Ore Plants After Big Gains

One model plant in Minas Gerais reported a quarter more output per hour. Vale now wants the same systems in the rest of its proces…

Vale Wants Porto Sudeste Without Paying Cash for It

Two binding offers are on the table for the Rio de Janeiro iron ore terminal. Vale is trying to join one of them without writing a…

Essity Buys Brazil’s Carefree and Sempre Livre for US$284 Million

The Swedish hygiene group is buying three brands most Brazilian households already know, and the factory equipment that makes them…