on Tuesday projected that the Peruvian economy will grow 2.6% this year, an improvement over its previous forecast (+2.5%) issued last May. This projection is also above the growth rate for Latin America and the Caribbean (+1.8%) in 2024.
The multilateral organization forecast that in 2024 Venezuela will grow 5%, followed by Paraguay (+3.8%), Uruguay (+3.6%), Chile (+2.6%), Brazil (+2.3%), Ecuador (+1.8%), Bolivia (+1.7%), Colombia (+1.3%), and Argentina (-3.6%).
For 2025, ECLAC predicts a 2.5% GDP growth for Peru, while Argentina will grow 4%, followed by Paraguay (+3.6%), Venezuela (+3%), Uruguay (+2.6%), Colombia (+2.6%), Chile (+2.3%), Bolivia (+2.2%), Brazil (+2.1%), and Ecuador (+1.6%).
ECLAC also noted that Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to grow 1.8% this year, a downgrade from its previous projection (+2.1%).
For next year, the organization forecasts a 2.3% GDP growth rate.
This document notes that the region remains stuck in a trap of low growth accompanied by poor investment performance and low labor productivity, which is compounded by limited domestic space for implementing macroeconomic policies for a reactivation, as well as global uncertainty.
Peru to reach another export record at the end 2024
According to the report, economic growth in Latin American countries has been weak over the past decade, averaging 0.9% between 2015 and 2024, which is lower than the 2.0% recorded in the "lost decade" of the 1980s.
Therefore, the document indicates that boosting growth is a key task for the region to address the environmental, social, and labor challenges it currently faces.
"Tackling the growth trap, increasing employment, and creating jobs with higher productivity require strengthening productive development policies that are complemented by macroeconomic and labor policies, as well as those on climate change adaptation and mitigation," the organization's Executive Secretary Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs emphasized.