exports of Latin America and the caribbean they increased only 2.9% in the first quarter of 2023, which represents a sharp slowdown compared to 16.4% in 2022, revealed a report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on Thursday.
The agency attributed this deceleration to the lower prices of basic products such as oil, coffee and iron, as well as to the weakening of the volumes exported, although he highlighted that the business performance of the region was higher than the world average.
According to the IDB report, exports of South America they fell 0.3%, dragged down by the falls in Bolivia (-23.5%), Venezuela (-20.2%), Argentina (-17.9%), Ecuador (-7.7%), Peru (-4.8%) Colombia (-4.7%) and Uruguay (-3.5%).
The only South American countries that experienced growth in their exports were Paraguayan (23.4%), Chile (10.7%) and Brazil (4.8%).
Exports in Mexico in the first quarter of 2023 they grew by 6.3%, a slower rate than in 2022, while in Central America they only increased by 1.6%.
According to the report, exports grew by Costa Rica (14.1%) and in Nicaragua (5.8%), but they decreased in Guatemala (-4.8%), El Salvador (-4.6%), Honduras (-3.7%) and the Dominican Republic (-1.5%).
Imports from Latin America and the Caribbean also slowed down in the first quarter of the year, registering 0.6% compared to 21.1% in 2022.
Economist Paolo Giordano, coordinator of the study, said in a statement that “the expansive business cycle has ended” What happened after the covid-19 pandemic.
He also pointed out that the slowdown trend in exports will probably continue in the second quarter, but the situation will stabilize in the second half of the year.