Americas November 2005

Canada’s jobless rate for September fell 0.1 percent to 6.7 percent from the previous month and dropped 0.4 percent compared to September 2004. Information, culture and recreation, and educational services jobs increased, as well as self-employment.

A governor for the Bank of Canada said if China would increase the value of its currency against the U.S. dollar faster, it would help the world economy with its current account balances. “Our view, which we’ve stated very clearly to the Chinese and stated very clearly publicly, is that the least cost way to make some of these [account balance] adjustments is for some nominal appreciation of the renminbi against the U.S. dollar,” said David Dodge in testimony before a Canadian Senate banking committee.

The central bank of Brazil said it was closely watching fuel and food prices before deciding on whether to change interest rates at its next meeting, and also said the country’s inflation was showing signs of being mild. These remarks came after Copom (Brazil’s monetary-policy committee) raised the Selic interest rate in October a half-point to 19.5 percent. The move comes after the Selic was cut by a quarter- point in September, the first rate decline in 17 months.

A group of analysts in Mexico expect inflation in the country to increase about 0.3 percent in the first half of October, which would be a decrease from 0.5 percent in the first half of October 2004. Reuters polled 25 analysts, whose responses ranged from 0.19 to 0.48 percent.

The CAFTA trade agreement passed earlier this year between the U.S. and seven Central American countries could finally produce some deals. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in mid October he was heading a group of 18 business leaders on a trip to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in hopes of exposing the U.S. countries to the opportunities in Central America.