Today IKN joins the ranks of the hackneyed and jaded commentators and puts together a list of predictions for the new year, but instead of a whole bunch of things we're going to keep it sharp and aim one forecast per country in South America. so in alphabetical order.....
- Argentina: Cristina is re-elected
- Bolivia: GDP grows by 4% in 2011, nobody cares.
- Brazil: The new Dilma government tries and fails to weaken the country's currency, the Real.
- Chile: Piñera's popularity stays roughly where it is right now, bobbling around 50%.
- Colombia: Santos comes under pressure from the USA to cool his new-found buddypal relationship with Chávez next door and diplomatically flips Hillary the bird as his reply.
- Ecuador: Correa moves forward the country's mining industry and gets plenty of pushback from indigenous populations via protests, marches etc.
- Paraguay: Another record soybean crop in 2011. Nobody will care.
- Peru: Toledo wins.
- Uruguay: Another good growth year for Uruguay in 2011 with no big problems in store.
- Venezuela: The country will come out of recession in 2011 and post strong growth numbers. This will coincide with the precise moment when foreign journalists stop reporting on Venezuela's GDP growth numbers.
Remember to check back at this post in December 2011 and laugh about how stoooopid the author was.