CMO COUNCIL™ LATIN AMERICA

Basic Economic Statistics:

• GDP at current prices (2008): $ 4.410 trillion
• GDP growth rate (2008) : 4.33%
• Exports (2008): US $1.115 trillion, Growth Rate: 2.01%
• Imports (2008): US $1.009 trillion, Growth Rate : 8.86%
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) (2008-2009):  $120.706 billion
• Latin America Market Value of listed companies (2008-2009): $1.169 trillion

Population Statistics:

• Latin America has a total estimated population of around  580 million people.
• There are a total of 20 countries in Latin America.
• During the better part of the last decade, U.S. Census Bureau data show the Hispanic population in the United States grew by 27 percent to 46 million, while the U.S. population as whole only grew by 7 percent to 299 million
• Total listed domestic companies in Latin America (2008): 1,371

Trade and Commerce Statistics:

• The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday that consumer spending edged up 0.2 percent after being flat in April, offering hope for a sustained recovery in Mexico's exports, 80 percent of which are sent to its northern neighbor.
• Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP shed 0.33 percent as a broadly stronger dollar .DXY hurt commodities prices .CRB, which weighed on the shares of some of Brazil's top companies.
• Latin America has enjoyed support amid Europe's debt crisis since its major economies have relatively less debt than many countries in Europe.
• More news in the mining sector weighed down the Latin American index, which fell 1% to 352.80. Fabio de Oliveira Barbosa Monday left his position as executive director of finances at Brazilian mining and metals giant Vale SA (VALE, VALE5.BR), the company said in a filing. Shares of Vale fell 2.6% to $26.63.
• Today, one of our topics of conversation is that, ten years ago, China wasBrazil's 12th largest trading partner; now, it is Brazil's No. 1 trading partner. China was Colombia's 35th largest trading partner in 2000 and is now its fourth-largest.
• A sharp drop in financing costs and a rise in investment income led to soaring second quarter earnings for Banco de Credito de Peru (BCP), the flagship bank of Credicorp (NYSE: BAP), according to the bank's filings with securities regulator Conasev.
• Panama-based Bladex (NYSE: BLX) will reevaluate risk valuation practices in its asset management division after it reported an US$11.8mn loss in the second quarter, all but wiping out good results from the bank's commercial division, Bladex CEO Jaime Rivera said in a conference call.
• After issuing US$200mn in 10-year subordinated bonds earlier this month, Brazilian midsize bank Mercantil do Brasil is aiming for 30% loan growth in 2010, but could end up wanting to issue senior debt to fuel this expansion, Cristiano Gomes, the bank's finance director, told BNamericas.
• Mercantil do Brasil ended up issuing an additional US$50mn on Wednesday through its subordinated bond program that closed last week, after a group of institutional investors, mostly from the US, requested the offer be widened.
• Gomes said that the bank's 150-branch network provided 75% of its funding, but that additional external sources could be explored, particularly in the context of continued growth in the bank's loans to retirees in private sector social security program INSS. In August last year, Mercantil presented a winning bid for a portion of these lending rights.
• Colombia's biggest banking holding Grupo Aval has reached an agreement to buy 100% of Central American financial group BAC-Credomatic from GE Capital Global Banking for US$1.9bn, the GE (NYSE: GE) unit said in a press release.
• The move by Grupo Aval shows its strong desire to enter Central America and it will most likely retain the BAC-Credomatic brand and not make any drastic changes to the way the group has been run, Fitch Colombia banking analyst Santiago Muñoz told BNamericas. Muñoz recently predicted that Grupo Aval would make a new bid for BAC-Credomatic after a failed attempt last month.
• The Brazilian government approved on Monday nearly $3 billion in funding to renovate and expand its airports ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
• The government also guaranteed investments of about $400 million in its ports, hoping to make sure the country is ready to host soccer's biggest tournament.
• Brazil's Rio de Janeiro city hall is planning to launch a 3.5bn-real (US$1.96bn) tender for phase II of its Porto Maravilha city renovation project during the first week of August, city development secretary Felipe Goes told BNamericas.
• Brazil's federal savings bank Caixa Economica Federal (CEF) has identified the 1.3bn-real US$732mn monorail project in Amazonas state capital Manaus as one of its most important financing projects to prepare the country for the 2014 World Cup, a bank spokesperson told BNamericas.
• The project, which is currently in the bidding phase, is part of a 2bn-real multimodal transport network that also includes a bus rapid transit (BRT) system.
• Costa Rica's public works and transport ministry MOPT is unlikely to go ahead with a project to build a dry canal connecting the country's Pacific and Atlantic ports due to the prohibitive costs involved, MOPT's sector planning official, Ibis San Lee, told BNamericas.

Key Government Business Resources for General Information:

• Business with Latin America
• Latin America Chamber of Commerce
• Latin America Chamber of Commerce
• Association of American chamber of commerce in Latin America
• Business News Americas

Top 10 in Latin America:

1. Mexico City, Mexico - 18,313,000
2. Sáo Paulo, Brazil - 17,711,000
3. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 10,556,000
4. Lima, Peru - 7,443,000
5. Santiago, Chile - 5,261,000
6. Belo Horizonte, Brazil - 4,160,000
7. Guadalajara, Mexio - 3,908,000
8. Medellin, Colombia - 3,831,000
9. Porto Alegre, Brazil - 3,699,000
10. Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. - 3,601,000

1. Petroleos Mexicanos - $69,383.1
2. Petroleos de Venezuela - $58,000.0
3. Pemex Exploraction yProduccion - $50,3131.6
4. Petrobras - $40,763.1
5. Pemex Refinaction - $30,776.8
6. Pemex Gas y Petroquimica - $16,433.8
7. Comision Federal de Electricidad - $14,644.2
8. Wal-Mart de Mexico - $12,597.9
9. Telmex - $12,449.2
10. America Movil - $12,085.5

1. Universidad del CEMA - Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. ESAN - Lima, Peru
3. IAE Pilar - Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. INCAE - Alajuela, Costa Rica
5. Instituto Technologico Autonomo de Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico
6. IPADE - Mexico City, Mexico
7. ITESM Monterrey - Nuevo Leon, Mexico
8. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile - Santiago, Chile
9. San Paulo - Sao Paulo, Brazil
10. Universidad de Los Andes - Cundinarmarca, Colombia

Mobile Facts

• There are a total of 504 million mobile subscribers in Latin America, which accounts for 11% of the global total.
• The Americas region grew by 11% in the quarter to exceed 500 million mobile connections by year-end, reaching 86% market penetration.
• Brazil still accounts for one third of connections in the region, and grew its installed base by 16% in 2009 to 176 million connections, adding 8 million net additions in Q4.
• Mexico and Argentina are the second- and third-largest markets adding 1.7 million and 1.5 million connections, respectively, in the quarter.
• 70 percent increase in its Hispanic-targeted media spending in 2009 and plans further increases in 2010.
• In addition, we will see new business models to leverage 3G adoption in the region, pushing on mobile marketing: iPhones given at no cost, for example, as long as subscribers agree to be hit by mobile advertising while in motion.
• As operators and service providers develop the ability to increase the segmentation of  customer bases in Latin America, the 1-to-1 marketing will be more successful and popular in the mobile marketing arena.
• The great volume of iPhones and smartphones sold in the region over the last 2 years, along with the extensive rollout of 3G networks, created the foundation to leverage mobile marketing initiatives this year.
• According to comScore M: Metrics, 71% of Hispanics devour calm upon mobile phones compared to the marketplace normal of 48%.
• the Hispanic interpretation users rsther than because, as promotion upon mobile phones (41% contra 30% of non-Hispanics) as good as some-more have responded (22% vs. 13%). Therefore, mobile selling to the Hispanic demographic is an event for expansion in this negligence manage to buy experience.
• Hispanics bond twice as quick as the altogether marketplace (14% expansion compared to 7%) entrance around the mobile selling Hispanicsmillion users per year.
• In the year 2008 have been twenty-three million Hispanics online, about 52% of the Hispanic population.
• America Movil SAB (AMX, AMOV, AMX.MX), Latin America's No. 1 wireless carrier by subscribers, said Friday it plans to eventually launch fourth-generation mobile services in Mexico after it aggressively bid for additional wireless spectrum in a government-sponsored auction earlier this month.

Internet Connected Households

• Latest data show that there are 177,692,850 internet users in Latin America, which represents 29.5% of Latin America’s population and represents 9.8% of internet users in the world. 
• fact, 83 percent of all travelers research their trips online prior to making a purchase, and travel organizations need to place a heavier emphasis on online spending."

Oil and Gas

• US oil service company Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) is seeing the global diversification of its integrated project management (IPM) away from Latin America, CEO Andrew Gould said in a webcast.
• Growth in the Argentinean automotive industry was helping heat up the polypropylene market in that country, a source said today.
• Polypropylene domestic offers in Argentina went down $50/mt over June, and they were heard at $1,700-1,750/mt CIF for homo and at $1,800-1,850/mt CIF for co-polymer.
• GX Technology, a subsidiary of US geophysical company Ion (NYSE: IO), has submitted an EIS to Peru's energy and mines ministry to carry out seismic work along the Tumbes-Tacna coast.
• Houston-based Key Energy Services could send its 11 idle rigs in Mexico's Chicontepec field to the rest of Latin America, company investor relations VP Gary Russell told BNamericas.
• Central Chile's Valparaiso state port operator EPV will launch a tender to concession a second terminal during 2H10, a company spokesperson told BNamericas.
• The project, known as Frente de Atraque 2, consists of building new piers and surrounding infrastructure, which will take four years to complete and cost an estimated US$180-200mn.
• Colombia can surpass its goal of achieving 1Mb/d of production by end-2011, according to Luis Guisti, the CEO of Canadian oil junior Alange Energy (TSX: ALE).