GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Tuesday 27 December was the last day that descendents of those who fled Franco’s Spain and the 1936-39 civil war could claim Spanish passports, and in Latin America in particular, the lines were long. Some 66,000 Cubans have already received Spanish passports and another 180,000 may have qualified.
Links to other sites: BBC, Latin America Herald Tribune
Inter-Europe air traffic remains weak
Worldwide improvement is concentrated in Asia, Latin America
Brands, not flags, must guide the industry to profitability, says Iata head
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The airline industry is expected to have an overall loss of $9.4 billion for 2009, according to Iata, the Geneva-based air transport industry organization, which released new figures Thursday 11 March. The loss is lower than Iata’s December projected figure of $11b. “More significantly, we now forecast smaller losses in 2010 of $2.8b, compared to our previous forecast of $5.6b.”
The improvement is due to year-end growth in traffic that carried on into January, but it was much led by Asia and Latin America, with the US and Europe far more sluggish.
Growth in passenger demand, world airlines 2006-2009 (Iata)
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“We can be optimistic but with due caution,” Giovanni Bisignani, CEO and director-general says. “Important risks remain. Oil is a wild-card, over-capacity is still a danger, and costs must be kept under control – throughout the value chain and with labour.”
Asian and Latin American carriers posted international passenger demand gains of 6.5 percent and 11.0 percent respectively in January. North America and Europe lagged, with international passenger demand gains of 2.1 and 3.1 percent.
Update 16 December Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Bananas have come close to being the fruit that broke the Doha Round’s back, but they could in the end save the talks, says the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). The European Union (EU) and Latin American exporters initialed an agreement Tuesday 15 December at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. It will settle their dispute over the banana trade and tariffs, which has been running for more than 10 years.
“An agreement on bananas is widely viewed as a critical condition for a conclusion to the stalled WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations,” says the Geneva-based ICTSD. The organization provides the international trade system with input on sustainable development aspects of trade.
A study published Tuesday by the ICTSD shows that “a new deal on European Union banana import tariffs will be a boon to Latin American exporters but would trigger a drop in exports of the fruit from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. But the blow to ACP banana exporters may be cushioned by the aid money that the EU has promised in conjunction with the deal.”
Global wealth has declined 11.7 percent from $104.7 trillion to $92.4 trillion, the first decline since 2001, as measured by financial institutions’ holdings of assets for their clients (assets under management, or AuM). The figures are published in a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report out 15 September. BCG sees the value of assets beginning to recover in 2010, but sas they will take three years to reach their 2007 levels.
The global economic downturn in 2008 hit equity holdings particularly hard, especially in North America, where AuM plummeted 21.8 percent to $29.3 trillion. Only 38 percent of assets are held in equities, down from 50 percent before the crisis. The number of millionaires in North America dropped 22 percent to 3.9 million, still the world’s biggest millionaire population. Europe’s assets declined only 5.8 percent and stood at $32.7t, slightly ahead of North America in AuM. Wealth in Latin America increased 3 percent over the period, the only region that registered growth.
Households with assets of less than $100,000 grew by 2 percent during the period, but all other groups’ assets declined.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chagas disease is one of the largest debilitating and killer diseases in Latin America, but it is not winning the battle it needs for public attention in order to reduce the number of its victims. It is considered a neglected tropical disease by the WHO (World Health Organization), which put it on the agenda for the May 2009 World Health Assembly, in part because it appears to be traveling, thanks to eco-tourism. It was bumped when the agenda was reduced to allow the meeting to focus on the new pandemic, A/H1N1.
Chagas disease appears to be spreading from isolated rural areas to urban areas as people move to cities, but there is little prevention for the insect-borne disease, no standardized diagnostic test and huge knowledge gaps remain about effective treatment.
Bolivia’s opposition has agreed to join talks starting Thursday to resolve the very tense situation in the country. The dispute is between the government of Evo Morales, the first majority-group Indian leader, and largely white governments in the east. One of the governors was arrested earlier this week, sparking more violence. Fear of the problems spreading led to Latin American leaders holding emergency talks this week. CNN
