The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says there has been a slight recovery in some indicators after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic including a continued impact on employment despite a slight improvement in labor indicators.
In its Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2022, released on Wednesday, ECLAC said in 2021, poverty in Latin America affected 32.3 percent of the population, including 12.9 percent of the population that was living in extreme poverty.
It said these figures represent a small decline versus the prior year, of 0.5 percentage points in poverty and 0.2 points in extreme poverty.
“The pandemic’s impact on employment continued despite a slight improvement in labor indicators. The population’s participation rate in economic activity for Latin America and the Caribbean rose to 61.4 per cent in comparison with the minimum of 57.8 per cent reached in 2020. In addition, the open unemployment rate declined, falling from 10.5 per cent in 2020 to 9.3 per cent in 2021. In both cases, however, the improvements seen in 2021 were not enough for these indicators to attain their pre-pandemic values.”
The yearbook shows that in 2022, the region’s economies grew at an estimated 3.7 percent, marking nearly half the growth recorded in 2021 (6.7 percent).
“This reflects the dwindling of the rebound effect on the recovery in 2021, along with the impact and effects of restrictive monetary policies, greater limits on fiscal spending, lower consumption and investment levels, and a deterioration in the external context.”
ECLAC said while growth decelerated in 2022, inflationary pressures held firm and that the region’s complex domestic scenario is compounded by a difficult situation in the external sector.
In 2021, Latin America and the Caribbean had a current account deficit in its balance of payments of 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) with a deterioration in the trade balance of the region as a whole, influenced by growth of 34.7 percent in goods imports, which exceeded the 27.7 percent expansion for goods exports.
“However, in 2021 foreign direct investment experienced a recovery with 14 percent growth in net flows versus the 20.4 percent drop seen in 2020.”
ECLAC notes that historically, Latin America and the Caribbean has contributed less than other regions to climate change. However, the countries in this region are very vulnerable to its negative consequences: floods, storms, droughts and landslides, among others.
“In 2022 alone, 74 hazardous events and disasters occurred, directly affecting more than 7 million people and causing the death of more than 1,000 people. The total damage and economic losses related directly or indirectly to disasters in 2022 in our region amounted to US$1.789 billion dollars.
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