Aiming to keep the budget deficit at a 10-year low, the Brazilian Congress approved late Wednesday a $133 billion spending plan for 2005. Legislators approved nearly 4 percent more spending than originally intended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The vote was likewise important because it was concluded just in time for the two-month summer recess of the legislative term. Had the budget not been approved, the government would have experienced the hindrance of a freeze of budget funding stemming from the delayed vote.

The authorities are now anticipating the lowest federal budget deficit since it began compiling the data in 1990, aiming to reduce it to a range within 2 percent to 2.45 percent of the gross domestic product. In contrast, the expected deficit for 2005 is presently set at 2.5 percent of the GDP. The budget was based on an estimated economic expansion of 4.3 percent in 2005 as well as an inflation of 5.9 percent in accordance to the IPCA consumer price index.

Brazil's increasingly robust economic outlook for the coming year is evidenced by the announcement Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Joaquim Levy that the government would lower the overall public debt to less than half of the GDP.

"If we manage to lower the debt by 2 or 2.5 percentage points next year, we would already be below 50 percent," Levy said. "This would be a very important signal."

The government is expecting the public debt load to stand at 52 percent of the GDP by the end of the year.

For the week, Brazil's Bovespa stock index gained 438 points to end at 26,161.

In Argentina, stocks have been experiencing peak performances in the latter part of the year thanks to the strengthened economy and the positive outlook for the country's $103 billion debt restructuring, scheduled to open on January 17.

The country's economy received an important boost on Wednesday as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated that the $12.6 billion debt registration statement filed by the government last week had become effective as of Monday. The SEC has to authorize all registration statements before the associated securities are sold in the U.S. market.

The amount is part of Argentina's planned overall debt swap, slated for launching on January 14 at the Buenos Aires stock exchange. The offer has generated repeated criticism from creditors angered that the Argentine government's proposal is insufficient.

Task Force Argentina (TFA), a group representing Italian creditors of Argentina's defaulted debt, stated Wednesday that "based on the available information [the TFA] considers that the proposal is detrimental for investors and accordingly totally unacceptable." The group is part of the larger Global Committee of Argentina Bondholders, which claims to represent investors holding $37 billion worth of bad Argentine bonds.

Argentina's debt proposal aims to exchange some $102.6 billion in defaulted bonds for up to $41.8 billion in new debt.

Argentina's Merval stock index added 67 points to end at a historic high of 1,389.

Mexico's stock exchange likewise marked a new record high on Wednesday as the market continues to jump.

The Bank (NASDAQ:TBHS) of Mexico announced Tuesday that the country's international reserves rose $489 million last week, reaching a record $61.4 billion as of December 24, an increase of almost $4 billion compared to the same date last year.

Nonetheless, the country's manufacturing industry continues to struggle amid gloomy prospects of job losses. Although manufacturing has long been considered on of the staples of the Mexican economy, the industry will likely shed jobs for the fourth year in a row.

According to the National Statistics Institute , the number of manufacturing jobs fell by 1.7 percent in October compared to the same month last year. The job loss was most marked in the textile and chemical sectors. An approximate 3 percent less people were employed in manufacturing during the first ten months of the year compared to the same period in 2003.

Even though Mexico has managed to recover some of the jobs it has shed during the past three years, economic growth has not sufficed to welcome newcomers to the workforce.

Mexico's IPC stock index gained 319 points this week to end at 13,031.

Even as Chile's economy confidently remains on a solid economic footing, its perennial headache of high unemployment continues to haunt the market.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) stated Wednesday that the national jobless rate rose to 8.6 percent in the three months through November compared to the 8.1 percent rate registered during the same period last year.

Given the country's recent recovery -with the economy experiencing its fastest growth in the last six years- more people have decided to look for work, the INE said. Chile's workforce likewise grew 3.3 percent during the period compared with the previous year.

Chile's economic growth was similarly boosted by the dynamic increase in foreign investment throughout 2004. Foreign investment reached $6.4 billion during the first ten months of the year, Chile's Foreign Investment Committee announced Wednesday. The figure marks a 219 percent increase from the same period last year.

In contrast, foreign investment in all of 2003 reached a mere $2.6 billion.

According to the committee, the increase owed largely to the $2.1 billion debt restructuring operations undertaken by electricity company Enersis, a subsidiary of Spain's power company Endesa.

For the week, Chile's IPSA stock index lost 28 points to close at 1,797.

Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) Director Domingo Maza Zavala stated earlier this week that the economy would grow by 7 percent to 8 percent in 2005. Maza Zavala claimed that Venezuela would be closing the year amid high levels of economic recovery.

According to the head of the BCV, the GDP is expected to grow by 15 percent in 2004, although some analysts have forecasted an even larger expansion.

"With this growth rate of 8 percent of the GDP for 2005 we will still be placed above other Latin American countries," he said.

Maza Zavala likewise stated that this year's inflationary rate would be around 20 percent, a drop from the inflation of 26 percent registered in 2003.

For the week, Venezuela's IBC stock index dropped 15 points to close at 29,728.

Colombia's government is expecting to have a fiscal deficit of 2.3 percent of the GDP in 2004, a slight improvement over its previous goal of 2.5 percent.

The country's economy was aided by higher oil prices as well as a fiscal surplus of .9 percent of the GDP during the first nine months of the year. The figure marks a positive performance when compared to the International Monetary Fund's recommended target of a .6 percent deficit for the period as well as a 1.2 percent deficit during the first nine months of 2003.

Colombia's IGBC stock index gained 190 points to close at 4,363.