Regional recovery remains uneven

Latin America’s economy has strengthened in the early months of this year – in fact, our GDP Tracker suggests that year-on-year growth returned to positive territory in Q1 for the first time since mid-2015. However, the recovery has so far been uneven. Brazil’s economy appears to be pulling out of its deepest recession in recorded history. Likewise, economic conditions in Argentina improved in Q1. But growth in Colombia and Peru has slowed since the turn of the year, while there’s a chance that Chile fell into recession. Meanwhile, although the business surveys still seem to be overstating weakness in Mexico’s economy, the reality remains that growth has slowed since the turn of the year. The net result is that while the growth figures for the region as a whole are improving, the performance of individual countries has been decidedly mixed.