Spend, Spend, Spend

摘要

Consumerism is afire in Latin America. In Brazil, sales of big-ticket items like cars have risen 80% since 2005. Consumers are flocking to buy new homes, personal computers and clothing. In Mexico, access to credit has been fueling a boom-let of consumer spending: The dollar amount of residential mortgages issued in that country more than doubled since 2003, to $23.3 billion last year.rnThis is good news for a region long plagued by currency devaluations and hyperinflation, both punishing to consumers. In January 1999, as the Asian financial crisis spread to Latin America, the Brazilian government abandoned the dollar peg and the value of Brazil's real tumbled. In Mexico the financial crisis that began in late 1994 forced the country to borrow $51 billion from the U.S., the International Monetary Fund and other indulgent lenders. It took years for Mexico to recover from the accompanying peso devaluation.