The Economic Climate Index (ICE) for Latin America is produced by the Brazilian center for economic studies Fundación Getúlio Vargas (FGV). According to the latest information revealed, the outlook for the region was not so low since the third quarter of 2022.
(See: They call to promote investments in the region for sustainable growth).
The results were obtained through 127 surveys carried out by the FGV to specialists from 15 countries. The figures obtained indicate that in the first quarter of 2023 it stood at 73.4 points and so far this year second has fallen to 65.8 points respectively.
The downward behavior of the indicator is due to the fact that the evaluation of the specialists was based on the current situation in Latin America. The Current Situation index registered a fall of 20 points, settling at 52.1 points in the second quarter. However, the Expectations indicator rose from 70.1 to 80.3.
(See: Foreign investment in the region would fall by half due to the coronavirus).
The country with the best business indicators is Paraguay, with 139.9 points in the second quarter. You they follow Uruguay, with 119.4 points; Mexico, with 85.7 points; Peru, with 83.5; Chile, with 61.2; Brazil, with 58.8; and finally Colombia, with 58.7, for that quarter of the year.
(See: Strong drop in foreign investment in Colombia in 2018).
For countries like Ecuador, with 41.7 points; Bolivia, with 19.2; and Argentina, with 7.0; the indicators are not the best, due to the political crises in the first two and the issue of inflation in the third.
FGV highlights that the only countries that had improvements in the indicators, compared to the first semester of 2023, were Chile, Uruguay and Colombia.
(See: Colombia seeks foreign investment for 230 projects).
As to projections of economic growth for 2023, according to specialiststhe figure for Latin America in 2023 fell from 1.4% to 1.1%.
By country, the forecast was:
– Paraguayan: 4.5%.
-Bolivia: 2.6%.
– Peru: 2.2%.
– Ecuador: 2.2%.
– Uruguay: 1.1%.
– Mexico: 1.5%.
– Colombia: 1.1%.
– Brazil: 1 %.
– Chili: 0.4%.
– Argentina: 1.0%.
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