The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on employment in Latin America and the Caribbean resulted in a decline in the population’s rate of participation in economic activity.
In its 2021 Statistical Yearbook, ECLAC reported that 57.8 percent of the region’s population had been economically impacted by the pandemic in 2020 as against 62.5 percent in 2019.
It said also there was a higher open unemployment rate, increasing from 8.1 percent in 2019 to 10.5 percent in 2020.
“As a result, the population without their own income increased notably in the region, especially among people from 15 to 24 years of age,” ECLAC said, pointing also to a “positive projection for a 6.3 percent recovery in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021 versus the -6.8 percent drop recorded at a regional level in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
It said these results are reflected in the average GDP per inhabitant, which amounted to US$8,307 in 2020 and US$8,747 dollars in 2021, marking a growth rate of 5.3 percent.
ECLAC said foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region plunged by -20.4 percent in 2020, compared with 2019, with Latin America experiencing a -20.7 percent decline and the Caribbean down by -10 percent.
As a percentage of GDP, FDI represented 2.1 percent in the same period, ECLAC said, adding that in 2020, intraregional exports represented 13 percent of all shipments abroad.
Regarding imports, ECLAC said intraregional purchases accounted for a 13.9 percent share of the total and that the intraregional exports fell eight percent versus 2019, while the decline in intraregional imports for the same period was 4.5 percent.
With regard to the terms of trade, ECLAC said there was a slight increase of 0.2 percent for Latin America in 2020, as compared with 2019.
In 2021, ECLAC said consumer prices rose 12.6 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the biggest contribution came from the prices for food and beverage products, which rose by 12.5 percent.
ECLAC in its 2021 Statistical Yearbook also examined several other areas of development in the region, including physical conditions; land cover; ecosystems; biodiversity; environmental quality; land; energy, water, and biological resources; emissions; disasters; human settlements; and environmental regulation and governance.
“It can be seen that since 1990, Latin America and the Caribbean have improved their energy efficiency, with a 26 percent reduction since that year in the energy intensity of GDP as a function of the primary energy supply, and a 13 percent decline in final energy consumption,” ECLAC said.
The report also indicates that, since 1990, the region has increased its exports of renewable and non-renewable natural resources by 168 percent, although the share of these primary exports vis-à-vis total exports has declined by 31 percent.
“This means there is greater pressure on natural resources, which causes a negative impact on the environment,” ECLAC said.
CMC/
