Brasília – Revenues from exports from Latin America and the Caribbean are poised to decline for the third straight year in 2015, by 14%, as per new projections released this Tuesday (20th) by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal).
According to Eclac’s 2015 Overview of International Insertion of Latin America and the Caribbean, plummeting prices of raw materials and a weaker global demand for goods the region exports have caused sales to decline. In 2014 and 2013, exports respectively dropped 3% and 0.4%.
The slowdown of China’s economy since 2012 also explains the decline in exports from Latin America, especially in countries that rely on sales to the Asian country to a greater extent, the UN’s Eclac notes.
The report indicates that revenues from exports will drop the most in raw material, oil, and oil products exporting countries. Foreign sales should slide 41% in Venezuela, 30% in Bolivia, 29% in Colombia, 17% in Argentina and Chile, and 15% in Brazil. Exports from Mexico and Central America are expected not to decline as much, at 4%, mostly as a consequence of sales to the United States, their primary buyer.
The Eclac believes export revenues across the region could drop again in 2016, since there is no commodity price rebound in sight next year.
The organization propounds that the region should focus on intraregional trade via trade facilitation agreements and on dealing as a bloc with other parts of the world.
“The region is at a crossroads: it either continues on its current path, restricted by the global context, or commits to a more active international insertion by relying on industrial policy, diversification, trade facilitation, and intraregional integration,” Eclac’s executive secretary Alicia Bárcena said in a press release.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
