*
Dollar firms on fears of more aggressive Fed
*
Brazil's Haddad: discussing rate level 'more important'
*
Argentina to hold rate at 75% as inflation reheats -
sources
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Colombians march to support Petro's social and economic
reforms
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FX falls 1%, stocks off 0.9%
By Shubham Batra and Bansari Mayur Kamdar
Feb 15 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies slid on
Wednesday against a stronger dollar after a slew of economic
data added to fears of a more aggressive U.S. Federal Reserve,
while Colombia's peso dropped to a six-week low to lead losses
among regional peers.
The dollar index jumped in the wake of
stronger-than-expected retail sales data underscoring a
resilient U.S. economy, and stubbornly high U.S. inflation data
overnight suggesting that the Fed was far from pausing its
interest rate hiking campaign.
The MSCI's index for Latin American currencies fell 1.0% by 1455 GMT, lagging the broader
emerging markets index .
Colombia's peso fell 2.5% against the dollar ahead of
GDP data that is expected to show the economy contracted last
quarter.
This follows overnight numbers that showed December's core
retail sales and manufacturing contracted in the region's
fourth-largest economy.
"Colombia is a country that has a combination of all of the
negative factors that will affect their currency and sink it
such as labor strikes, a global economy that doesn't seem to be
necessarily recovering, and a U.S. economy that is relentless,"
Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex USA, said.
"Investors are losing faith in the Colombian economy and
that's why you have a start of the year that also shows that the
safer bet is to hold on to your dollars than invest in
Colombia."
Colombians took to the streets across the country's major
cities on Tuesday to support economic and social reforms put
forward by President Gustavo Petro as part of efforts to reduce
poverty, exclusion and inequality in the South American country.
The International Monetary Fund said Colombia's central bank
may need to consider additional hikes to its benchmark interest
rate, depending on how inflation behaves.
The currency of the world's biggest copper producer, Chile , slid 1.3% tracking prices of the red metal as demand
uncertainty outweighed supply disruptions, while the Peruvian
sol slipped 0.3%.
Mexico's peso slid 0.9% against the greenback.
The Brazilian real fell 0.7% after Finance
Minister Fernando Haddad said discussing the interest rate level
was more important than debating inflation targets.
Stocks in Latin America fell 0.9%, tracking
the slide in global markets.
Argentina's central bank is set to hold its benchmark
interest rate steady at 75% this week despite inflation gaining
pace once more, but hopes of a potential rate cut early this
year are fading as prices heat up, bank sources told Reuters.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1455 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily % change
MSCI Emerging Markets 1002.69 -1.16 MSCI LatAm 2214.14 -0.88
Brazil Bovespa 108816.03 0.9
Mexico IPC 52624.29 -0.07
Chile IPSA 5335.51 0.06
Argentina MerVal 258068.35 -0.153
Colombia COLCAP 1219.29 -0.28
Currencies Latest Daily % change
Brazil real 5.2282 -0.57
Mexico peso 18.6780 -0.89
Chile peso 795.6 -1.41
Colombia peso 4876.26 -2.61
Peru sol 3.8618 -0.78
Argentina peso (interbank) 192.3600 -0.19 Argentina peso (parallel) 375 1.07 (Reporting by Shubham Batra; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
