Contents

---SWOT Analysis Political Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
---Political Stability and Risk Assessment BMI's Risk Ratings assess explicit short and long-term risks to political stability; latets ratings, rankings and trends are compared with regional and global averages.
---Current Administration and Policy-making BMI profiles key policy-makers and power-brokers in the government, assessing threats to the continuity of economic policy, and likely changes to the business operating environment through end-2012.
---Foreign Policy BMI examines key trends and shifts in foreign relations and alignments with regional neighbours, the United States and Europe, focusing on external influences.

BMI's Latin America Business Forecasts Reports feature explicit BMI forecasts, with supporting commentary and analysis, for end-2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 set against government and other views. Underpinning our Latin America forecasts are key assumptions for the global economy through end-2012, covering growth, inflation, employment, trade and investment, interest and exchnage rates in the US, Japan and the Euro-zone.

---Economic Activity Real GDP growth; industrial growth,; employment growth; inflation and consumer prices; consumption (wages, retail sales)
---Fiscal Policy Macroeconomic strategy implementation policies; government finance (revenue, expenditure, budget balance); tax reforms
---Monetary policy Interest rate trends (bank lending and deposit rates); inflation (retail price inflation, consumer price inflation)
---Exchange Rate Policy Currency controls; influence of foreign direct investment inflows; exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves
---Balance of Payments Merchandise trade (exports, imports, trade balance); current account balance
---Foreign Direct Investment Foreign direct investment approvals and inflows; the foreign investment climate

---Business Environment Risk Rating with SWOT Analysis Short and long-term business environment risk ratings, benchmarked against ratings for regional neighbours.
---Country Competitiveness Competitiveness of Latin America's business operating environment in supporting corporate growth and profitability over the 5-year forecast horizon, compared with regional neighbours. Key areas covered:

• Domestic Environment Transparency, cronyism and corruption; labour market flexibility; corporate tax burden; interest rate levels; access of private sector to lines of credit; sophistication of banking sector and stock market; levels of business confidence; infrastructure and IT
• Foreign Direct Investment Analysis of foreign investment regime, government trade policy, liberalization measures, tariffs and membership of trade area

BMI's independent 5-year forecasts to end-2012 and industry trend analyses for Latin America's leading industry sectors, including: Automotives, Defence & Security, Food & Drink, Freight Transport, Information Technology, Infrastructure, Oil & Gas, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare and Telecommunications. Key areas covered: 

•   Market Overview Size, value and structure of industry; impact of liberalisation and privatization on sector performance and prospects; friendliness of business environment
• Latest Developments Review of latest projects, deals, privatisations, mergers and acquisitions, and implications for sector performance
• Company rankings Main industry players by local sales, employee size, market share and main brands, products and services
• 5-year Industry Forecast Historic dataset (2003-2007) and BMI forecasts through end-2012, covering headline industry data broken out by sub-sector