Bar chart comparing 2021 GDP growth rates across Latin American countries and regions, showing LatAm's significant recovery after a sharp decline | Sources: IMF, Latinometrics
LatAm's GDP Fastly Recovers From Pandemic Downfall

LatAm's GDP grew 6.82% in 2021. In regular times, this number would be astonishing. However, after a pandemic, this means that the region is just getting back on its feet. According to the IMF, Latin America & the Caribbean had the sharpest GDP decline in 2020 at -6.95%.

Although other regions had smaller GDP growth in 2021, they didn't have as sharp a decline when the pandemic began, and they grew more in 2021 than what they declined in 2020. For reference, here's how the rest of the world's GDP moved in the last two years (2020 vs. 2021):

World: -3.06% ➡️ +6.11%

Euro Area: -6.36% ➡️ +5.34%

Sub-Saharan Africa: -1.66% ➡️ +4.51%

Middle East & Central Asia: -2.9% ➡️ +5.71%

Out of all the countries on the chart, Panama's GDP contracted the most in 2020 (-18%). As the world went into lockdowns and international trade stalled, a country that highly depended on its canal traffic was greatly affected.

Peru also had a very sharp GDP decline in 2020 (-11%), mainly due to strict lockdowns, which brought much of the economy to a virtual standstill and caused the failure of many small companies. Even though its economy hasn't recovered to pre-pandemic levels, a growth in domestic demand supported by the expansion of both public and private expenditure is helping Peru get back on track.

Honduras also had a substantial GDP contraction in 2020 (-9%) due to the pandemic and two intense hurricanes, which caused 400k people to lose their jobs that year. On the bright side, the country's 2021 GDP is bigger than in 2019, indicating an almost complete recovery of their economy to pre-pandemic levels, even when accounting for inflation. Honduras' recovery was led by remittances, which supported private consumption, and robust external demand boosted by the U.S. recovery.

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