* Lula backs spending cuts to meet Brazil's fiscal framework
* Chilean central bank releases June policy meeting minutes
* Kenya's president, IMF chief speak after tax hikes pulled
* Latin American stocks up 1.1%, currencies up 1%

By Johann M  Cherian and Shristi  Achar A
       July 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's real led gains among Latin
American currencies on Thursday after President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva committed his government to fiscal stability, while
markets also reacted to the release of central bank policy
meeting minutes in Chile.    
    Brazil's real jumped 1.5% to 5.48 to the dollar after
Lula ordered his economic team to comply with the country's
fiscal framework and approved suggestions of spending cuts, the
country's finance minister said. 
    The currency jumped more than 2% on Wednesday, its biggest
one-day rise since January, in the run-up to the meeting between
the Brazilian leader and his economic team. The real recently
suffered losses in which it depreciated to lows of more than two
years on concerns of fiscal sustainability in the region's
biggest economy.
    "Although we expect President Lula will shift to a more
pragmatic discourse once he internalizes the consequences of
double-digit interest rates, we are concerned this could come
too late, as the debt burden escalates exponentially," said
Felipe Camargo, senior economist of the global EM team at Oxford
Economics.
    More broadly, the MSCI index that tracks Latin American
currencies strengthened 1% to more than a
one-week high against the dollar. Trading was thin as U.S.
markets were closed due to the Independence Day holiday.
    Market attention is now on the U.S. government's closely
watched monthly employment report on Friday, which could provide
clues to the Federal Reserve's likely monetary policy path and
the outlook for the dollar. 
    Mexico's peso added 0.4%. Mexican President-elect
Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday named Omar Garcia Harfuch as
security minister.   
    Traders also parsed Sheinbaum's latest criticism of the
Mexican judiciary. Concerns about judicial independence under
Sheinbaum's incoming government have pushed the currency to
notch its biggest quarterly drop since the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Chile's peso strengthened 0.8% as copper prices were
steady. The South American nation is the world's largest
producer of the metal. 
    Minutes from the Chilean central bank's policy meeting last
month showed it considered cutting the benchmark interest rate
by 50 basis points or keeping it unchanged. The central bank
opted for a 25 basis-point reduction to 5.75% at the meeting.
    Peru's sol inched up 0.2% in thin trading. Economy
Minister Jose Arista said the copper exporter's economy likely
grew between 4.5% and 5% on a year-on-year basis in May, in what
would be the second consecutive month of growth.
    Colombia's peso added 0.3%.
    The MSCI index that tracks regional bourses
rose 1.1% to a one-month high, aided mostly by heavy-weight
Brazilian equities.
    Elsewhere,  Kenyan President William Ruto spoke with
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva after he
withdrew proposed tax hikes after deadly protests. The hikes
were central to the IMF's $3.6 billion lending programme for the
East African nation, according to sources. 
    
    Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:
  
 Latin American market prices from                          
 Reuters                                            
                                                    
          Stock indexes                   Latest    Daily %
                                                     change
 MSCI Emerging Markets                     1104.23      1.09
 MSCI LatAm                                2233.84      1.15
 Brazil Bovespa                          126271.19      0.48
 Mexico IPC                               52698.89     -0.18
 Chile IPSA                                6525.19     -0.14
 Argentina MerVal                       1614465.83     0.683
 Colombia COLCAP                           1386.03      0.33
                                                            
              Currencies                  Latest    Daily %
                                                     change
 Brazil real                                5.4846      1.52
 Mexico peso                               18.0857      0.41
 Chile peso                                  934.2      0.88
 Colombia peso                             4092.55      0.29
 Peru sol                                   3.7792      0.26
 Argentina peso (interbank)               913.5000      0.11
                                                    
  

 (Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Shristi Achar A in
Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao and Matthew Lewis)