MercoPress of Montevideo reported that Brazil’s economy added the fewest net payroll jobs in a decade in 2013, a sign that three consecutive years of weak economic growth is weighing down the economy, according to the latest government data.  However, unemployment remains at record lows. 

So wrote Susana González in La Jornada of Mexico City.  The basket of 28 basic food products, whose prices rose 14% last year, rose 7.38% in a month, going from 880 to 946 pesos in Mexico City and its metropolitan area, according to the Federal Consumer Prices watchdog (PROFECO).   

Semana Magazine of Bogotá reported that 2013 was a good year for the economy in Colombia. 

Raúl Dellatorre Página/12 of Buenos Aires noted that the arrival of intense heat in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area has yet again caused the collapse of the electrical distribution system, and wondered

El Comercio of Lima noted that consumer confidence in Peru had reached its highest level in two years. 

MercoPress of Montevideo reported that Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega insisted that the government is keeping spending under control as he sought to calm anxiety about the deterioration of the government’s accounts.

So asserts Joshua Goodman in La Nación of Buenos Aires.  The dream of the late President Hugo Chávez was to use Venezuela’s oil wealth to spread the influence of his “revolution” throughout Latin America.  The dream seems to be “fading under the weight of an economic crisis.” 

Buenos Aires Herald reported that Argentina’s automotive industry saw sharp falls in November compared to the same month of the previous year,

In La República of Lima Alejandra Cruz Cuevas reported that Latin America has the lowest level of value-added manufacturing growth in the world.   

Prensa Libre of Guatemala City reported that Panama continued to follow a path of economic prosperity and development in 2013.