Latin America showed a solid 6.1 percent growth in GDP in 2010, signaling that the crisis that began in late 2008 was over. This reflects solid macroeconomic policy fundamentals, strong internal demand supported by sizable government support, favorable external financing conditions, and strong commodity revenues.
Brazil, the largest economy in the region, showed a healthy 7.5 percent GDP growth. The Mexican economy recovered from a disappointing 2009 and grew by 5.5 percent in 2010, helped by the recovery of the US economy. The Argentinean economy grew by a strong 9.2 percent, while the economy of Chile went up by 5.3 percent in spite of the negative effective of the earthquake suffered in February 2010. Colombian GDP was up by 4.3 percent in 2010 and in Peru GDP grew 8.8 percent. Venezuela’s GDP declined again, by 1.9 percent, in spite of higher oil prices.
The forecast for 2011 and 2012 is also good. According to the April 2011 World Economic Outlook issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the region’s GDP is estimated to go up by 4.7 percent in 2011 and 4.2 percent in 2012. By comparison, the world economy as a whole is expected to grow at 4.5 percent per annum in 2011 and 2012, with developed countries growing only by 2.5 percent. This makes Latin America an attractive market. (See Figure 1.)
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