E39: Latin America – Where Politics Meets Prosperity
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The renewable energy outlook is strong despite policy headwinds. Citi Research highlights an era of "energy addition," where renewables and clean tech, including solar and wind power, will be crucial for meeting rising global energy demand.
- While the Inflation Reduction Act has spurred domestic manufacturing, significant innovation in nuclear energy, backed by bipartisan support, positions it as a key, long-term power source for meeting AI and data center energy demand.
- Future growth requires navigating China's dominance in the energy storage supply chain and scaling new technologies like Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which are expected to become a cost-competitive, clean power source beyond 2030.
In our latest Research @ Citi podcast, Head of Research Lucy Baldwin sits down with Luis Costa, Head of Emerging Markets Strategy, to discuss Latin America and the political and economic-policy backdrop. Investors are still navigating the evolving tariffs framework for emerging markets, with central banks staying cautious. But equities have rebounded since a fairly tough 2024 and countries such as Brazil have found a middle ground between China and the West without too much conflict or noise.
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Lucy Baldwin, Head of Citi Research
Lucy Baldwin is a Managing Director and Global Head of Research at Citi. Lucy is responsible for managing Citi’s global independent research across all asset classes. Lucy joined Citigroup in April 2021 from Credit Suisse, where she was Global Head of Equity Sales. Prior to Credit Suisse Lucy was at Bank of America as Head of European Equity Sales (2015-2019), and at Goldman Sachs as a Director of European Equity Research and in a variety of research analyst roles (2006-2015). Lucy started her career at Cazenove as an equity research analyst covering the building materials sector.
Luis Costa, Global Head of Emerging Market Strategy
Luis Costa is the Global Head of EM Strategy. He has been covering the CEEMEA markets, from both hard currency and local currency perspectives, for over 20 years. Prior to joining Citi Research, Luis worked at Commerzbank and at ING Wholesale Banking on EM Strategy positions. Luis has also worked on the buy-side, first as a local markets proprietary trader at FleetBoston in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and later as a EM structured products trader at Delta National Bank in New York.
