Markets Pound South America as Leaders Proclaim Strength in Face of Crisis

Joshua Goodman and Katia Porzecanski
Bloomberg
September 23, 2011

Leaders from South America came to New York this week to tout their combined economic strength in the face of financial turmoil in developed nations. They’ll return home with their armor dented after investors dumped the region’s stocks, bonds and currencies.

The presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile -- the region’s four investment-grade economies -- rattled off a list of accomplishments in speeches this week while attending the United Nations General Assembly: record foreign currency reserves, falling debt levels and economic growth above 4 percent. While criticizing policy makers in Europe and the U.S. for acting slowly to address their debt challenges, they vowed to work together to protect their own economies from turmoil.

"No offense to the Greeks but I think your investment would be safer in Peru," President Ollanta Humala said last night during a Council of the Americas dinner in New York.

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