Set for sharp falls in output, more rate cuts

We now think that the growing economic damage caused by the coronavirus will result in falls in GDP across Latin America. For the region as a whole, we expect that output will decline by about 2% this year, which would be similar in scale to the 2008/09 global financial crisis and the start of the Latin American debt crisis in the early 1980s. Interest rates will be lowered much further, although the early signs suggest that the fiscal response will be more modest.