Argentina’s economy will suffer a 10.5% collapse this year, and only two countries, Venezuela and Peru, will see stronger falls in Latin America due to the impact of coronavirus, according to a ECLAC forecast. The Economic Commission for Latin America – the UN agency based in Santiago de Chile – thus raised the fall in Argentina’s GDP by four percentage points, as the previous April report had estimated it at 6.5%. In turn, it estimated that the poverty rate will climb the country to 37.5%.
By disseminating the projections for 2020, the agency estimated that the Latin American economy will fall by 9.1% during 2020.In Last April, ECLAC had projected a 5.3% decline but the overall situation deteriorated further by impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The agency estimated that the strongest collapses will register them: Venezuela with 26%; Peru, with 13%; Argentina with 10.5% and Brazil, with 9.2%.
“This is the worst contraction in economic activity since records and will result in a fall in regional GDP per capita to 2010 levels, with a 9.9% crash,” ecLAC executive director Alicia Bárcena warned.
