The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its 2021 growth projection for Peru from 7.3% —in its previous report— to 9%.
The IMF warned that the pandemic's resurgence in Latin America threatens to thwart an uneven recovery and that, despite improved prospects, consumption and investment are lagging.
In the midst of the crisis, the IMF upgraded its 2020 forecast for the region from -8.1% to -7.4%; however, some economists have warned that full recovery is still a long way ahead.
This revision was "based on the stronger than expected performance in 2020, an expectation of expanding vaccination efforts, better growth outlook for the United States, and higher prices of some commodities. Growth is expected to accelerate later in the year."
"The aggregate forecast masks important differences across countries. While growth for this year in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru was revised up, it was downgraded for the Caribbean, from 4% to 2.4%, because resumption in vital travel and tourism activity has been much slower than anticipated," the IMF Blog stated.
"We forecast that the region will go back to its pre-pandemic levels of output only in 2023, and GDP per capita in 2025, later than other parts of the world," International Monetary Fund (IMF) Western Hemisphere Director Alejandro Werner and other economists said in the article.
The Fund also indicated that the crisis had a disproportionately large impact on employment with losses concentrated among women, young, informal and less educated workers —with consequences for social indicators.
(END) MMG/SDD/RMB
Published: 2/8/2021