* Brazil's Haddad to send 'balanced' 2024 budget bill to Congress * Mexico's economy grows slightly below forecasts in Q2 * Peru slashes 2023, 2024 growth outlook (Updated at 1920 GMT) By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Ankika Biswas Aug 29 (Reuters) - Currencies of major Latin American countries were mixed against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, while the Mexican peso slipped after data showed its economy grew slightly below estimates in the second quarter. The MSCI's index for Latin American currencies climbed 0.2%, with Brazil's real and Colombia's peso gaining around 0.2% each against the dollar. The dollar index gave up early gains and dropped after data showed U.S. job openings fell for a third straight month in July, bolstering bets of a pause in U.S. interest rate hikes. Brazil's finance minister expects to submit to Congress a "balanced" bill for next year's budget, to be presented on Thursday. Insufficient government spending cuts, rising global interest rates and tighter liquidity place Brazil in a risky fiscal situation, a former central bank governor said. On the flip side, Mexico's peso weakened 0.2% as its economy grew 0.8% in the second quarter from the previous three-month period, slightly behind the 1% forecast by economists polled by Reuters. Alfredo Coutino, director for Latin America at Moody's Analytics, said however that the Mexican economy remains resilient and that any domestic interest rate cuts will follow a similar course of action from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Peru's sol lost 0.2% with the country lowering its economic growth forecasts for 2023 and 2024 amid poor weather, lower private investment in mining, and anti-government protests earlier this year. Chile's peso lost 0.8% against the greenback, falling for the second day and the only major Latam currency to have logged a year-to-date decline. "Chile did more than enough policy tightening that is bruising economic activity, feeding concerns that the past rate hikes were too strong for the central bank to get the economy out of the negative territory," Coutino said. On Argentina's political front, self-described libertarian presidential front-runner Javier Milei will need time to carry out his campaign pledges of scrapping the peso and cutting taxes on grains should he win the election, advisers said. The MSCI Latam stocks gauge gained 1.1% to a three-week high, led by Mexican and Argentine stocks. South America's largest beef exporter Minerva dropped 17% as a move to acquire 16 slaughterhouses from rival meatpacker Marfrig for 7.5 billion reais ($1.53 billion) was seen as straining debt levels and weighing on expected dividends. The Brazil-China Business Council said Chinese investments in Brazil tanked 78% in 2022 year-on-year, hitting their lowest in 13 years as funds committed to resource projects plummeted. Meanwhile, Latam countries should reduce their public debt to between 46% and 55% of GDP to be able to maneuver during future crises, a report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said. Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1920 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 988.58 1.07 MSCI LatAm 2430.85 1.1 Brazil Bovespa 118015.74 0.76 Mexico IPC 54093.32 1.22 Chile IPSA 6044.88 0.33 Argentina MerVal 677037.53 1.73 Colombia COLCAP 1108.76 0.4 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 4.8635 0.23 Mexico peso 16.8159 -0.23 Chile peso 860 -0.76 Colombia peso 4099.19 0.18 Peru sol 3.6891 -0.17 Argentina peso (interbank) 349.9500 0.01 Argentina peso (parallel) 735 0.41 (Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
