Latin America & the Caribbean

The World Economic Outlook recently released by the IMF states that the economies in Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 5.7%; certainly just “a bit” of an increase over the 4.3% estimated at the outset of 2010. The report mentions that the region is growing at a faster pace than expected due to solid macroeconomic policies, consolidated and stable policy support, favorable external financial conditions and strong commodity revenues. An additionally interesting observation is that Mercosur (a trade federation founded in 1991 comprising countries of southern South America – Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina) has emerged as the GDP growth champion so far this year. All those members are expected to enjoy growth rates exceeding 7%. Argentina and Brazil are estimated to experience rates of 7.5%, Uruguay should have 8.5% and Paraguay (the perennially overlooked southern sibling) is pegged to experience a 9% growth rate. These numbers place the Mercosur countries among the top five in the entire region! And, as you may have surmised, Paraguay may well be the region’s economic growth champion by year end. The strong growth in the region is attributable to strong domestic demand (so much so that some global economists are worried that it will lead to economic overheating in some countries), a powerful and stable increase in investment (mostly domestically derived funds and capital returning to the local markets after being invested overseas for a number of years) and healthy exports driven by Chinese and Asian demand and by the demand derived from the slow but steady recovery of the U.S. economy.   More >