Brasília – Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are holding back the average growth of South America. So says the Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2014, released this Tuesday (2nd) by the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac), Alicia Bárcena. The organization forecasts that the South American economy will grow by only 0.7% in 2014. Similar to what took place in 2014, different countries and sub-regions should perform differently throughout 2015.
On presenting the Eclac’s projections, Bárcena said Latin America is posting “heterogeneous numbers.” Whereas the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bolivia is expected to be up 5.2% – and Panama and the Dominican Republic should grow by 6% –, Argentina and Venezuela, in South America, and Santa Lucia, in the Caribbean, should see their GDPs decline by 0.2%, 3% and 1.4%, respectively.
Although positive, the projection for Brazil is 0.2%, a lower rate than the 0.5% forecasted by the country’s government. Bárcena said the low growth rate in South America is due to lacklustre growth in the major economies, i.e. Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
