Fitch Ratings discusses the corporate credit environment throughout Latin America.
As can be seen in the charts on the following two pages, Latin American corporates have made tremendous improvements in their liquidity positions since the end of 2003 due to vibrant local capital markets, strong cash flow generation and significant deleveraging. The improvements have been broad-based, occurring within each market and across each issuer default rating (IDR) category. The charts also reveal a sharp downturn in the funds from operations (FFO) growth rate during the last twelve months (LTM) ended June 30, 2008, and a reduction in cash as a percentage of short-term debt.