IMF: Venezuela will reach December with inflation of 400% | via: Sumarium
Sumarium | Venezuela | April 12, 2023 | IMF / Picture: Archive
Unofficial translation made by HumVenezuela…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that its economic growth outlook for Latin America for 2023 worsened by two tenths of a percentage point, from 1.8% estimated in January to 1.6%, according to the latest World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.
However, the report points out that the region’s growth in 2024 will be one tenth of a percentage point higher than forecast in the previous report, reaching 2.2%. Despite this, the figure will still be lower than that achieved in 2022, when Latin America’s GDP expansion was recorded at 4%.
Latin America will be one of the regions with the lowest economic growth in both 2023 and 2024 within the group of emerging market and developing economies. Globally, it will perform better than the European Union (EU), whose GDP will increase by 0.7% in 2023, or the United States, which will also grow by 1.6%.
Economic activity in Central America is expected to perform better, expanding by 3.8% at the end of the year. The Caribbean countries as a whole are expected to grow by 9.9% in 2023.
South America will remain at 1% growth this year and will not exceed 2% in 2024. Chile will experience a 1% contraction of its GDP, while Brazil and Argentina will grow by 0.9% and 0.2%, respectively. Mexico and Bolivia will reach 1.8%, while Paraguay and Peru will grow by less than 3%.
As for inflation, Latin America is expected to end 2023 with a year-on-year rate of 13.3%, just 1.4 points below the 2022 figure. By 2024, the price index is expected to drop from double digits to 9.9%.
Argentina and Venezuela will record very high year-on-year rates in 2023, although the former will fall below 100% by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Venezuela will reach December with an inflation rate of 400%, and by 2024 the figure will be halved. Colombia will not manage to reduce the year-on-year figure below 10%, remaining at 10.9%. Chile will close at 7.9%, Mexico at 6.3% and Brazil at 5%.