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Latin America

Brazil exports many of the foods served at Iftar, the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan

Brazilian exports to Kuwait rise in readiness for Ramadan

With Ramadan around the corner, trade between Kuwait and Brazil has been brisk – the Latin American country plays an important role in supplying the food needed for Iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal that Muslims enjoy during the holy month. Brazilian exports to the Gulf country spiked in November as Muslim importers began to prepare […]

UAE minister of state for foreign trade Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi confirms the successful Cepa negotiations with Costa Rica

UAE and Costa Rica finalise trade pact terms

The UAE and Costa Rica have concluded negotiations on the final terms of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) between the two countries. Once implemented, the Cepa will eliminate or lower tariffs, reduce trade barriers, promote private-sector collaboration and develop pathways for investment, the UAE state-run Wam news agency reported. The UAE’s minister of state […]

A worker cycles past Aramco oil tanks in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia

Opec set for tricky new year: US booms and demand slows

Opec+ has struggled to maintain high oil prices this year and 2023 is ending with Brent trading 10 percent lower year on year and below the crucial $80 break-even mark of GCC countries. 2024 looks likely to be another challenging year for the oil alliance, analysts have told AGBI. Oil demand rose by more than […]

A worker checks a shipment of copper in Valparaiso, Chile, the world's largest copper producer; rising prices and tighter supply may encourage the Middle East to ramp up its own production

Middle East craves a copper-bottomed future

While recent weeks have seen some major ups and downs in the price of copper, for many old hands in the sector this is nothing new. “The one sure thing in copper,” Carlos Risopatron, director of economics and environment at the International Copper Study Group, tells AGBI, “is that you can always rely on volatility.” […]

A Colombian grower picks coffee fruits at a plantation in Pueblorrico. Only Brazil and Vietnam produce more coffee

Coffee fuels growth plans for UAE-Colombia trade

The UAE finalised the terms of a trade deal with Colombia on Saturday as a Dubai free zone is also targeting growth with the commodities-rich nation. The comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) is the first bilateral trade deal between the Gulf and South America. Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC) brought its Made for Trade Live roadshow […]

Fire, Forest Fire, Outdoors

Brazil plans mega fund to conserve forests at Cop28  

Brazil plans to propose a “huge” fund to pay for the conservation of tropical forests at the United Nations Cop28 climate change summit, which begins later this month in Dubai, the country’s top climate negotiator said on Thursday. That fund, not previously reported, would be the latest in a proliferation of multilateral environmental funds. Countries […]

Oil tankers and other vessels moored off Singapore. An area further off Singapore is favoured by Iran's dark fleet for ship-to-ship transfers

Growing ‘dark fleet’ carries sanctioned oil to China

More than 600 ships, often old tankers which are unsafe and whose ownership is obscure, are transporting Iranian and Venezuelan crude around the world. The numbers of vessels and cargoes are growing, industry experts told AGBI.  The ships turn off their transponders – a vessel’s automatic identification system or AIS – to go ‘dark’. They […]

Workers inspect equipment at a hydropower plant in Zhangye, northern China. About 41% of renewables jobs are in China

Renewables workforce nearly doubles in a decade

Employment in the renewable energy sector has almost doubled over the past decade, the International Renewable Energy Agency and International Labour Organization have found. There were 13.7 million jobs in the global industry in 2022, up from 7.3 million in 2012, the agencies said in the report Renewable Energy and Jobs: Annual Review. Employment growth […]

A Brazilian delegation headed by Alexandre Cordeiro Macedo (third from left), president of the Administrative Council for Economic Defence, visited the UAE this week

UAE and Brazil boost non-oil trade with partnership

The UAE and Brazil have launched a partnership to exchange economic expertise and build on non-oil bilateral trade of $4.3 billion in 2022. The initiative is part the UAE’s Government Experience Exchange Programme that welcomed a Brazilian delegation to the Emirates earlier this week. Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE’s minister of economy, said […]

Beyond One Virgin Mobile Latin America

Dubai tech company buys Virgin Mobile Latin America

A Dubai technology investment company has bought Virgin Mobile Latin America, a mobile virtual network operator with operations in Mexico and Colombia. The acquisition by Beyond One follows its buyout in February of Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa, which serves Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait.   A mobile virtual network operator is a provider […]

Mubadala Atvos sugar cane processor

Mubadala to buy 31.5% stake in Brazilian cane processor

Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala Capital will take an opposite direction from most of its peers in the Brazilian sugar and ethanol industry, which it plans to enter by early next year, betting on expanding output of the biofuel and looking only marginally to sugar. Bruno Serapiao, CEO of Atvos, one of the country’s largest […]

Al Suwaidi climate pledge

Al Suwaidi: time to deliver on $100bn climate pledge

Developed countries must stump up their agreed $100 billion a year to tackle climate change as the world is a long way off from meeting the targets set in the Paris Agreement, Cop28’s director general said in Brazil this week. “We need to invest across the board in every kind of solution that is going […]

Argentina Qatar loan IMF

Argentina agrees $775m loan with Qatar to repay IMF

Argentina agreed a $775 million loan with Qatar on Friday, which will be used to make an immediate International Monetary Fund repayment. The country’s government is grappling with a severe economic crisis with sky-high inflation and falling central bank reserves while facing IMF repayments. Its economy minister Sergio Massa said on Monday Argentina would not […]

Russia Brics expansion

Russia says expansion will strengthen Brics

Russia said on Thursday that the Brics group of countries would be strengthened by adding new members, in its most explicit endorsement yet of the idea of expansion. The Brics group of emerging economies currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Moscow sees the group as an increasingly important and influential counterweight in […]

Brazil central bank kicks off ‘aggressive’ rate cuts  

Brazil’s central bank kicked off its rate-cutting cycle more aggressively than expected on Wednesday, reducing its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points and signalling more of the same in the months ahead due to an improving inflation outlook. The bank’s rate-setting committee Copom cut its Selic policy rate to 13.25 percent, as just 10 […]

Saudi minister of investment Khalid al-Falih is head of Saudi Arabia's Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority

Saudi and Brazil sow seeds to partner on food security

Saudi Arabia is intensifying its trade and investment ties with Latin America in pursuit of food security and green energy, as a ministry-led delegation hunts for opportunities in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Argentina, Panama and Paraguay. A visit to São Paulo earlier this week by Khalid al-Falih, Saudi minister of investment, coincided with a Brazilian […]

Brazil UAE minister of energy

Defence giant leads UAE charge into Latin America

UAE defence conglomerate Edge has partnered with the Brazilian navy to develop long-range anti-ship missiles, weeks after opening a new regional office in the federal capital, Brasilia.  The deal, described as a “significant milestone” by Mansour AlMulla, managing director and CEO of Edge, was signed during the visit of a delegation led by Reem bint […]

Money, Dollar, Person

Remittances to Mexico hit new record of $5.7bn in May

Mexico brought in close to $5.7 billion in remittances in May, central bank data showed, breaking a monthly record that analysts cautioned was softened by the recent strength of the peso versus the dollar. While Mexico records remittances in dollars, as most of the funds come from the United States, “a strong peso hurts remittances”, said Goldman Sachs […]

Turkey restricts credit card use

Visa to buy Brazilian startup Pismo for $1bn

Visa is acquiring Brazilian fintech platform Pismo for $1 billion to expand its footprint in Latin America. The deal, a vote of renewed confidence in the region during a funding slowdown, is the largest fintech exit in Latin America since Nubank went public in late 2021 and the largest disclosed startup exit so far this […]

Marcelo Claure, executive chairman of Bicycle Capital

Mubadala invests in $440m LatAm fund

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala is an anchor investor in a new $440 million fund run by former SoftBank executives that will buy into Latin American startups. Miami’s Bicycle Capital has launched the fund, its first, according to a press statement that says it could increase to $500 million. The Bicycle 1 fund will partner with the […]