Argentina, Brazil, Chile: Latin America Bond, Currency Preview

By Valerie Rota

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic reports may influence trading in Latin American local bonds and currencies today. Bond yields and exchange rates are from the previous session.

Argentina: An offer to buy back as much as 150 million pesos ($50 million) of bonds closes today at 1 p.m. New York time. The repurchase is part of a buyback program the government began earlier this month. Argentina bought back $380 million of dollar- and peso-denominated bonds in the previous two weeks.

The peso was little changed at 3.0263 per dollar.

The yield on the country's inflation-linked peso bonds due in December 2033 rose 7 basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 10 percent, according to Citigroup Inc.'s unit in Argentina.

Brazil: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to boost spending excluding interest payments by 13 percent in 2009, the government's budget proposal for next year showed yesterday.

The federal government plans to spend 607.8 billion reais ($375 billion) in 2009, compared with 539.1 billion reais authorized for this year. The budget estimates economic growth next year will slow to 4.5 percent, compared with 5 percent this year and 5.4 percent in 2007. Inflation in 2009 will slow to 4.5 percent from 6.4 percent this year.

The real rose 0.4 percent to 1.6219 per dollar.

The yield on the country's zero-coupon bonds due January 2010 rose less than 1 basis point to 14.8 percent, according to Banco Votorantim SA.

Chile: Industrial production increased 4.3 percent in July from a year earlier after falling 0.9 percent the previous month, according to the median forecast of 12 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. Unemployment was 8.4 percent last month, matching the jobless rate in June, the median forecast of 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg shows. The national statistics agency is scheduled to publish the reports at 9 a.m. New York time.

The peso rose 0.6 percent to 519.82 per dollar.

The yield for a basket of five-year peso bonds in inflation-linked currency units rose 1 basis point to 2.88 percent, according to Bloomberg composite prices.

To contact the reporter on this story: Valerie Rota in Mexico City at vrota1@bloomberg.net.