☀ Domingo Brief — Copa America Has Begun

Each Sunday, take two minutes to catch key stories and opportunities shaping Latin America.

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Welcome back to the Domingo Brief! This week, we’re following Brazilian worker earnings, a new ICC site in the Dominican Republic, and more.

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Trivia of the Week

Over half of you (59%) correctly answered that Bolivia was not part of the South American alliance which defeated Paraguay in the Paraguayan War of the 1860s, Latin America’s bloodiest and deadliest inter-state war. While Bolivia and Paraguay would eventually fight in the Chaco War in the 1930s, it was rather Paraguay’s modern-day Mercosur associates of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay which wrought such damage on the country.

Each week, tune back in for the answer to the previous week’s trivia question. No cheating!

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🇦🇷 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its growth forecast for Argentina for this year to a 3.5% contraction. This revised figure is 0.75 percentage points lower than its initial forecast, demonstrating the international organization’s declining confidence in the country’s economic performance for 2023.

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🇧🇷 Brazilian workers’ earnings increased over 11.7% last year, reflecting the largest jump since the Real Plan of the mid-1990s. Paired with the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.9%, this reflects a mixture of improved macroeconomic fundamentals and a boost in public spending which began in late 2022 and persisted throughout 2023.