According to a preliminary report published by the División de Dessarollo Económico of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean can be expected to grow by 4.2% in 2011 and maintain an overall deficit of 2%.
In the Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2010, countercyclical measures adopted by several countries in the wake of the international financial crisis have been shown to have affected a 4.8% rise in per capita GDP for this year.
The regional unemployment rate fell from 8.2% in 2009 to around 7.6%, and the quality of jobs created also improved.
Meanwhile, inflation edged up slightly from 4.7% in 2009 to an estimated 6.2% in 2010, mainly due to international prices for some commodities.
Although the growth of the region’s countries has been uneven, most recorded positive figures for 2010. South America will grow by 6.6%, while GDP is expected to rise by 4.9% in Mexico and Central America and by 0.5% in English-speaking and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries.
Paraguay will post the strongest growth (9.7%), followed by Uruguay (9%), Peru (8.6%) and Argentina (8.4%). Brazil will grow by 7.7%, while Mexico and Chile will expand by 5.3%.
In contrast, Haiti and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela are expected to see GDP fall by 7% and 1.6%, respectively.
From the second half of 2010 onwards, many factors have generated a less optimistic scenario for the international economy, and this combines with weaker demand from public policies and the shrinking of idle productive capacity to give a lower growth forecast for the region of 4.2% in 2011 (approximately a 3% rise in per capita GDP).