Mexico’s Ortiz Says Market `Correction Is Healthy’
Mexican Central Bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz described this week’s decline in emerging market bonds and currencies as a “healthy correction.'’
“The markets can’t always be going in only one direction,'’ Ortiz told reporters after speaking at a conference on competitiveness in Mexico City today. “It’s healthy that there are corrections.'’
Mexico’s currency slipped 2.7 percent against the dollar in the last five days to 10.7675 pesos, its weakest level since Dec. 28, from 10.4753 pesos. Mexico’s benchmark stock index fell 345.46, or 1.9 percent, to 18,205.61 as of 2:11 p.m. New York time and has dropped more than 5 percent in the last three days.
Ortiz said investors are pulling back from emerging market investments as a rebound in economic growth in developed nations leads to higher interest rates in Japan, Canada and other countries.
More: quote.bloomberg.com
Mexico Will Keep Lowering Interest Rates, Ortiz Says (Update2)
Mexico's central bank will keep cutting its benchmark lending rate because inflation is in line with year-end targets, bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz said.
``We've started an easing cycle, we're lowering interest rates,'' Ortiz, 57, said in testimony before the Senate today. ``We're unlinked to the monetary cycle in the U.S.''
Ortiz said the bank is more focused on core inflation -- which excludes volatile fresh food and energy prices -- than the overall inflation rate. His comments suggest the bank will cut interest rates twice more before year-end even if rising fuel
Mexico to order full disclosure on credit cards
Mexican central bank Gov. Guillermo Ortiz said he will require banks to disclose all charges when they advertise credit cards, part of a bid to push down lending rates that have restrained economic growth.
Banks in Mexico charge as much as 40 percent a year on credit cards, or triple the U.S. average. More than two-thirds of Mexico's $13.7 billion credit-card market is controlled by units of New York-based Citigroup and Bilbao, Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
"Interest rates on consumer credit are too high," Ortiz said. "Transparency is the best way to foster competition."
Ortiz,
Mexico cenbank to keep monetary 'short' for now
Mexico has no plans to abandon the money market 'short' it once used to fix monetary policy even though it now sets interest rates more directly, central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz said on Thursday.
"We now have two (instruments), an interest rate floor and the short," Ortiz said after a speech in Mexico City. "We're keeping the short hidden away in a little box for now, in case we need it."
For years, the central bank controlled monetary policy by tweaking the short, a restriction on the amount of overnight lending to banks that
Mexico bank chief backsoil windfalls fund initiative
Mexico's central bank governor has thrown his weight behind an initiative to use windfall oil revenues to buttress economic stability.
Guillermo Ortiz told the Financial Times this week that plans promoted by President Vicente Fox to set up a stabilisation fund along the lines of an existing - and highly successful - Chilean model would significantly reduce uncertainty ahead of Mexico's presidential election next July.
"It would be an important piece of legislation to have in place particularly with an election and would go a long way to reducing the uncertainty and risks associated with a
Mexicos economic activity grew 4.4 pct in Feb
Mexicos economy expanded a healthy 4.4 percent in February compared with a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday in the latest sign that growth picked up in the first quarter.
But Februarys year-on-year expansion was not as strong as Januarys 5.7 percent leap and economic output fell 0.61 percent in February from January on a seasonally adjusted basis. But it still set the basis for a solid quarterly GDP growth.
The monthly IGAE index measures about 96 percent of Mexican economic output, excluding only fishing and forestry.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected a
MEXICO CITY, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Mexico's stock exchange said on Thursday it will not replace steel maker Hylsamex when it delists and cuts the company from the IPC index next week, further narrowing the market's already reduced breadth.
Acquisitions by big foreign players in Mexico in recent years have led to a string of delistings of blue-chip firms like cement maker Apasco, Bancomer bank and other financial groups, cutting into trading volume on the country's bourse.
Hylsamex, which Argentine firm Techint is buying for $2.25 billion, will be delisted from the market as of Monday, leaving only 34 stocks in the
Mexican retail powerhouse Wal-Mart de Mexico, or Walmex, posted 34 percent growth in net profit for the third quarter on Friday as aggressive expansion and cost savings fueled growth.
Walmex (WALMEXV.MX: Quote, Profile, Research), a unit of No. 1 global retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), reported a net profit of 2.001 billion pesos ($186 million) for the quarter.
Walmex has used aggressive expansion and low prices to become the dominant retailer in Mexico's fragmented market with more than 700 stores and restaurants.
It said quarterly sales rose 14.7 percent to 38.658 billion pesos year on year. Same-stores sales, which
Mexico's Bonds Have `Value' After Yields Climb, ABN Amro Says
Mexico's peso-denominated bonds may rebound after yields on the 10-year security rose 42 basis points since March 1, said Siobhan Manning-Morden, director of Latin American strategy at ABN Amro Inc.
Bond yields, which move in the opposite direction from prices, climbed this month on concern rising interest rates in the U.S. and other industrial countries will lure investors away from emerging markets. Manning-Morden says investors should hold onto Mexican peso bonds because the difference between long-term yields on U.S. and Mexican debt is still wide enough.
``I don't think it's
Media group urges Mexico to help find missing writer
The international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday urged Mexican authorities to find a radio and newspaper reporter missing in the northern border state of Coahuila.
Rafael Ortiz, 32, was last seen before dawn Saturday after leaving the offices of the daily Zocalo newspaper in the city of Monclova, about 135 miles from Eagle Pass.
We urge the Coahuila state authorities to do everything possible to find Ortiz quickly and to alert the new prosecutors office that specializes in attacks on the press, the New York-based media watchdog group said in a
UPDATE 1-Mexico central bank sees 2006 growth near 3.5 pct
Mexico's central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz said on Thursday the economy will grow close to 3.5 percent this year, a lukewarm performance with presidential elections looming in July.
Ortiz said he expected gross domestic product to rise between 3 and 3.5 percent. "It looks more likely that we will be in the upper end of the range," he told reporters.
President Vicente Fox pledged before taking office in 2000 to deliver growth rates approaching 7 percent a year, but his proposals for tax, labor and energy reforms have been blocked by the opposition-dominated
