São Paulo – Latin America and the Caribbean will grow only 0.5% this year, according to new estimation released this Wednesday (29th) by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). According to the commission, South America should see 0.4% shrinkage while Central America and Mexico should grow 2.8% and the Caribbean 1.7%.
Panama should lead the regional economic expansion, followed by the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, both with 4.8% growth. Brazil will see a retraction of 1.5% with Venezuela posting 5.5% shrinkage.
ECLAC attributes the economic downturn of the region as a whole to external factors, such as the weak growth of the global economy in 2015, the stagnation of global trade, the fall in prices of basic goods, financial markets volatility and uncertainty, besides domestic issues within each country. The commission proposes a boost in investments and improvement in productivity to resume growth.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
