Guyana, Haiti to lead economic growth in LatAm, Caribbean in 2014
AS happened last year, the United Nations’ annual World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) Report 2014 has projected that Guyana and Haiti will take the lead in economic growth for Latin America and the Caribbean.Both countries are projected to grow by 4.5 per cent this year. According to the report, Guyana’s economy grew by 4.6 per cent in 2013, while Haiti’s was pegged at 3.5 per cent. Guyana has experienced seven years of consecutive economic growth.
| Country | GDP growth in 2014 (Project) |
| Guyana | 4.5% |
| Haiti | 4.5% |
| Cuba | 3.9% |
| Dominican Republic | 3.5% |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 2.5% |
| Jamaica | 1.2% |
| Barbados | 1 % |
Source: UN
Overall in the Caribbean region, growth is pegged at 3.3 per cent for this year. Last year, growth for the Caribbean Region was estimated at 2.4 per cent, which was slightly slower than was forecast in the last two years.
Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to hasten their growth to 3.6 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively in the next couple of years, up from 2.6 per cent in 2013, according to WESP.
The report attributes the positive growth in 2014-2015 to sound macroeconomic policies, resilient domestic demand, and the gradual recovery in developed economies.
It has, however, warned that economic growth remains subject to growth in other economies, mainly the euro area, the United States and China, which has now slowed considerably.
In 2013, for instance, although the Region experienced some measure of growth, economic expansion was uneven. South America took the lead with 3.2 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, up from 2.5 per cent the previous year, due to a rebound in Argentina and Brazil.
By contrast, economic activity in Mexico and Central America is estimated to have slowed to 1.5 per cent in 2013, down from 4.0 per cent in 2012. In the case of the former, the slowdown has been partly blamed on the structural constraints the Mexican government has been facing, what with GDP growth decelerating significantly to only 1.2 per cent.
WESP is produced at the beginning of each year by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the five United Nations regional commissions.
A report compiled by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in December last puts Guyana’s economic growth at close to WESP’s projections, that is, 4.6 per cent in 2014.
With regard to the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC said they are projected to expand by 3.2 per cent in 2014, which is higher than the 2.6 per cent from the end of 2013.
ECLAC stated in its annual Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean for 2013 that less buoyant external demand, greater international financial volatility and falling consumption were the factors determining the more modest economic performance of countries in 2013, which brought down the three per cent estimate put forward by the commission in July.
(GINA)
