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Monday, 17 January 2022 23:10

Latin America and the Caribbean to decelerate growth to 2.1% in 2022

Written by Evelyn Alas

In its annual report Preliminary Overview of the Economies 2021, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), highlights that 2022 will be a year of great challenges for growth, employment generation and facing the social costs of the pandemic.

The Latin American and Caribbean region will slow down its growth rate in 2022 to 2.1%, after growing an average of 6.2% last year, according to new projections released on january 12 by ECLAC.

This slowdown occurs in a context of significant asymmetries between developed, emerging and developing countries regarding the capacity to implement fiscal, social, monetary, health and vaccination policies for a sustainable recovery from the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was stated by ECLAC in its annual report Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2021.

According to the report, the region faces a very complex 2022: persistence and uncertainty about the evolution of the pandemic, strong growth deceleration, low investment, productivity and slow recovery of employment, persistence of the social effects caused by the crisis, less fiscal space, increases in inflationary pressures and financial imbalances.

According to ECLAC, the expected average growth of 2.1% reflects a high degree of heterogeneity among countries and sub-regions: The Caribbean will grow by 6.1% (excluding Guyana), Central America will grow by 4.5%, while South America will grow by 1.4%.

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