Looking at Latin America

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S&P Global Ratings has increased their 2021 GDP growth projections for the major economies in Latin America to 5.9% from 4.9%, due to better-than-expected performance of the services sectors so far this year. Households and business are adapting quickly to living in a pandemic, and lockdowns are having much less of an impact on activity than anticipated.

However, S&P Global Ratings has lowered their GDP forecasts for 2022 for most economies in the region, as monetary policy normalization, fiscal tightening, and less predictable policy actions will slow the recovery.

S&P Global Ratings' long-term macroeconomic assumptions are unchanged from last quarter, at roughly 2.5%, due to low levels of investment.

The pandemic has hit the middle- and lower-income households the hardest, and increased social and political tensions will generate a high degree of policy uncertainty in the post-pandemic years. This could further dampen investment and lower long-term potential GDP growth.

Latin America could be on the verge of a mining bonanza. Governments and businesses all over the world are rushing to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, and the region is a critical supplier of the minerals that underpin solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

But extracting those minerals is expensive and creates its own set of environmental and social consequences.

The shifting political winds in Latin America will be monitored closely by Spain's Banco Santander SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, which have come to rely on the region to offset weak profitability in their European businesses.

Peru has yet to declare a victor from its June 6 presidential election, but with attempts by right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori to challenge the legality of left-wing outsider Pedro Castillo's narrow victory losing momentum, it appears to be a matter of time before the school teacher and union leader takes office.

Crude production by private operators in Mexico reached a new record in June as state oil company Pemex struggles to stop the decline of its own output, official data shows.

Independent exploration and production companies increased their crude oil output to little under 70,000 b/d in June, the largest reading to date, data from the National Hydrocarbons Commission showed July 22.

The increase came as Eni, Petrofac and Hokchi Energy, the three largest producers, raised their output, the data showed. The companies together account for almost 50,000 b/d, the data shows.

Brazil's soybean exports fell in July as the hoarding of stocks by farmers raised supply concerns, sources told S&P Global Platts Aug. 3, which is expected to support demand for US beans.

Brazil, the world's top soy supplier, exported 8.66 million mt of soybeans in July, down from 11.12 million mt in June and from 9.95 million mt in July last year, the country's Secretariat of Foreign Trade, or Secex, said in a report Aug. 2.

Daily export shipments averaged 40,000 mt lower on the year at 393,897 mt, Secex said in the report.

Soybean exports over January-July were estimated at 66 million mt, down 3% on the year, the data showed.

With a delayed harvest in the current marketing year 2020-21 (February-January), Brazil's soy exports in June and July had been expected to emulate the record levels of April and May, but the reluctance of oilseed farmers to sell their stocks since early June has put the brakes on the country's exports.

Univision Communications Inc. is gearing up for the 2022 launch of its two-tiered, aggregate streaming service, and the Spanish-language programmer has big ambitions.

"Our vision for the offering is to grow significantly over the next three years and offer more Spanish-language content than any other streaming service globally," Pierluigi Gazzolo, president and chief transformation officer at Univision, said in an emailed interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence.