- ECLAC estimates that Latin America’s GDP will grow 2.2%
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has predicted that the Dominican Republic will be the second fastest growing economy in Latin America and the Caribbean by the end of this year.
In a report titled “Preliminary Balance of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2024”, published this Wednesday, the entity indicates that the Dominican Republic’s gross domestic product (GDP) end 2024 with a growth rate of 5.2%, only below Venezuela (6.2%), followed by Paraguay (4.2%) and Costa Rica (4.1%), these being the four economies with the greatest expansion in the region.
In the middle of the table are Nicaragua (3.7%), Honduras (3.6%), Guatemala (3.5%), Brazil (3.2%), Peru (3.1%), Uruguay (3.1%), El Salvador (3%), Panama (2.6%) and the Caribbean islands (2.5%), not counting Guyana, which is experiencing an oil boom.
Regional Expansion
ECLAC increased its regional GDP growth forecast for this year to 2.2%, compared to the 1.8% estimated last August.
For 2025, the United Nations agency foresees a 2.4% expansion of Latin American GDP, that’s 0.1% more than forecast in August.
“The economies of the region will continue this year and next immersed in a trap of low growth capacity, with growth rates that will remain low and with a growth dynamic that depends more on private consumption, and less on investment,” ECLAC says in its report.
When presenting the report, ECLAC executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, recommended an increase in the capacity of economies to mobilize resources effectively.
As for regional inflation, the agency estimated that it will close this year at 3.4%, compared to 3.7% in 2023.
Haiti, the most contracted economy
ECLAC reports that Haiti will end 2024 with a 4%, slowdown, the region’s economy that will register the largest drop in its GDP at the end of this year, followed by Argentina (-3.2%) and Cuba (-1%).
At the bottom, but still with positive figures are Ecuador (0.8%), Mexico (1.4%), Colombia (1.8%), Bolivia (1.7%) and Chile (2.3%).
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