Latin America and the Caribbean’s regional economy will grow by 3.2 percent over the rest of 2012 and will improve to 4.0 percent growth in 2013, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The 2012 Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, which forecasts macroeconomic conditions in the region, was released this morning at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
This edition of the survey focuses on the external difficulties that caused the recent economic slowdown in the region, such as the continued crisis in Europe and the decrease in prices for the region’s main export commodities. The report also highlights the varying responses to the global financial crisis and provides growth rate estimates by country.
Chile and Peru are among Latin America’s fastest-growing economies through 2012, with 5.5 and 4.3 percent growth, respectively. Conversely, Brazil’s economy, the largest in the region, decelerated 0.8 percent, with the country growing at just 3.0 percent.
ECLAC’s June Macroeconomic Report on Latin America and the Caribbean had forecasted a 0.6 percent drop in regional growth, from 4.3 percent in 2011 to in 3.7 percent 2012.
