WEALTH CHAMPIONS: Presidents Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil lead Latin America's wealthiest nations by per capita and total size, respectively.(Photo: Brazilian President's Office)
What are the wealthiest markets in per capita terms and by size? What are the poorest? We take a closer look.
BY CHRONICLE STAFF
Latin America's ranking of economic size and wealth as measured by purchasing power parity is changing, new data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows.
While Brazil remains the top economy in the region, the smallest economy is no longer Haiti. Now it's Nicaragua that ranks at the bottom, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook. The IMF expects that to continue this year as well.
Apart from Nicaragua falling behind Haiti, other changes in GDP size include Costa Rica’s economy passing that of Uruguay this year, while Honduras will pass that of Paraguay, according to our analysis.
Meanwhile, the IMF expects Chile to replace Mexico as the richest country in Latin America as measured by GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita in current international dollars. Mexico will fall behind not only Chile, but also Argentina, the IMF’s estimates show. And Ecuador will fall behind El Salvador when it comes to PPP per capita.
For complete rankings on GDP in 2008 and estimates for 2009 as well as GDP PPP per capita rankings for 2008 and estimates for 2009, see the links below. (Premium Subscription required).
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From: oscar benitez de la campa, Guatemala Thank you for the article about the Richest and poorest in Latam. It is remarkable how poor public policy has placed Nicaragua in the lowest position. While Honduras, once and stagnated country, is moving up, due to an acceptable interaction between the government's public policy development goals, the private sector and international financial institutions. We in Latin America have to flee from doctrines that happily drown us into poverty.
From: Fanm Vanyan, Haiti Now you know people are not going to ride Nicaragua the way they been riding Haiti about being the poorest country in the western hemisphere. For a good while I thought that poorest country in the western hemisphere was our subtitle. I never read any article about Haiti that did not start with, Haiti: the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Let’s see how much that is going to change because, they stomp hard on that dead horse. KUDOS TO HAITI CHERIE!!!!
From: Federico, Nicaragua When it comes to Chavez, Ortega and the sandinistas... we can expect anything..including becoming the poorest country in the world!
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