The Latin American economy is unlikely to perform better this year than it has in previous years but is expected to stick to the course of slow recovery, Elliott Harris, UN chief economist and assistant secretary-general for economic development, told Sputnik in an interview
GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2020) The Latin American economy is unlikely to perform better this year than it has in previous years but is expected to stick to the course of slow recovery, Elliott Harris, UN chief economist and assistant secretary-general for economic development, told Sputnik in an interview.
"Basically speaking, Latin America for 2020 is expected not to do as well as it did in previous years, but it is going to be on the path to recovery," the economist said.
Venezuela's economy is unlikely to prosper � it is projected to suffer a more than 10 percent loss � unless its political crisis is resolved, Harris said.
Argentina has meanwhile been forced to deal with a "highly uncertain" political situation, Harris said, borne out of the previous government's introduction of severe austerity measures in the face of growing inflation.
"The economy shrank in 2018 by 2.5 percent and shrank again in 2019 by 3 percent. It will recover somewhat, but our projections are very cautious, because it's not yet clear what the policy stance of the new government is going to be, and the country is very, very heavily reliant on the IMF financing," the economist said.
The expectation, according to him, is that the Argentinian economy will remain in a recession in 2020, but that its overall performance will be "somewhat better" than that of the previous year.
Chile's protests against inequality will certainly impact the country's short-term economic outlook, the economist continued.
"In 2019 the growth decelerated quite dramatically from 4 percent in 2018 down to 0.8 percent in 2019. It will be maybe somewhat better, maybe 1 percent in 2020. We do see that the government is planning to implement a social agenda, and there may be some additional structural reforms that could perhaps contribute to a recovery to more inclusive and sustainable growth over the medium term," Harris said.
Brazil is still trying to recover from the decline in commodity prices that happened during the 2014-2016 period, Harris added, while Mexico's overall performance in 2019 was not as good as it could have been. In 2020, however, Mexico is expected to have some significant improvements.
