WORST & BEST: Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Martin Torrijos of Panama in Panama City in March. Mexico will see the lowest growth in Latin America, while Panama will see the highest. (Photo: Mexican President's Office)
Panama and Peru are the stars of economic growth in Latin America, while Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador an Venezuela are the top losers.
BY CHRONICLE STAFF
Panama will continue to have Latin America's highest economic growth, while Mexico will have the lowest, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of new data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
All in all, Latin America is expected to increase its GDP this year by 4.4 percent, the fund said in its latest World Economic Outlook released last week. That's a slight revision upwards from the 4.3 percent GDP growth the IMF had forecast earlier. It's also better than the IMF's forecast for global growth (3.7 percent) and economic growth in the United States (0.5 percent), the European Union (1.8 percent) and newly industrialized Asian economies (3.9 percent). However, Latin America will lag areas like developing Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Commonwealth of Independent States when it comes to GDP growth this year.
Next year, Latin America's economy should grow by 3.6 percent. That will be higher than the forecasted growth in the United States and the European Union, but will lag all other areas and be slightly less than the expected global average of 3.8 percent.
Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy, will likely expand its GDP by 2.0 percent this year and...
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From: Mas The IMF has been predicting a slow down in the Venezuelan economy for about 4 straight years. With the price of oil constantly rising, I don't know what the IMF is thinking. Well, actually I do know. Recent research shows that IMF forecasts are politically motivated.
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