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).<\/p>\n
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%.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The Eclac believes export revenues across the region could drop again in 2016, since there is no commodity price rebound in sight next year. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n