LatinFinance - November/December 2017 - 20

ROUNDTABLE
IMF
In a roundtable discussion hosted by LatinFinance at the IMF/World Bank
annual meetings, policymakers and investors discussed the changes in
the global financial and economic landscape, the future of NAFTA and
upcoming elections in Latin America.

Turning the corner
T

his year has marked a turning point for
many of Latin America's economies. The region overall is on track for modest economic
growth after years of deceleration. While
the outlook varies from country to country,
the economic data broadly looks positive.
As many countries still try to chart a path to
stronger growth after the end of the commodities boom, new challenges have arisen,
particularly global political uncertainty
over the issue of trade. US President Donald
Trump's push to renegotiate NAFTA has cast
a cloud over Mexico's economy, which so
far has showed resilience, although the peso
has slumped against the dollar.
Domestic politics are also raising questions about the potential strength of Latin
America's economic recovery, with Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay all
scheduled to hold presidential elections
over the next year.
At the roundtable discussion organized
by LatinFinance at the annual meetings of
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank in October, a group of policymakers and investors gathered to analyze
Latin America's incipient recovery and the
challenges ahead.
Participants included Mexico's Finance
Secretary José Antonio Meade, Pemex CEO
José Antonio González Anaya, Colombia's
Deputy Finance Minister Andreas Velasco
and Paraguay's Deputy Finance Minister
Humberto Colman. Other panelists included Katherine Renfrew, emerging markets
managing director at TIAA Investments,
Edwin Gutiérrez, head of emerging market
sovereign debt at Aberdeen Asset Manage-

20 L ATINFINA NCE.COM - November/December 2017

IN GOOD FAITH: Mexican Finance Minister José Antonio Meade expects the NAFTA talks will
benefit all members of the trade agreement

ment, and Arnab Das, head of emerging
markets macro research at Invesco.
The following is a partial transcript of the
highlights of the wide-ranging discussion,
edited and condensed for clarity.

On NAFTA negotiations

Meade: We are negotiating in good faith
and we think the central scenario for us
continues to be that we will be able to get
a result that is to the benefit of Mexico, the
US and Canada. We're immersed in a negotiation process that is challenging. It's a

challenge that we face from the perspective
of Mexico's economy being more modern,
with more balanced sources of growth,
which is doing well in a complex global environment. That shows that the reform process, where the benefits were expected to
come more gradually, actually have started
to benefit the Mexican economy. There are
many things at stake, and many stakeholders sitting around the table. I think the
fundamentals for the relationship among
the three countries to continue are there,
ideally under a better framework than we've

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of LatinFinance - November/December 2017