Recovery set to disappoint

While Latin America is no longer in freefall, any evidence of ‘green shoots’ remains largely confined to Brazil and Chile and appear to owe much to a pick-up in commodity prices that is unlikely to be sustained. Elsewhere in the region, the data remain pretty grim. Industrial production continues to fall and labour markets continue to deteriorate. The only piece of good news is that inflation has started to moderate in response to weaker demand. Nonetheless, with the recovery in the global economy set to disappoint, the same is likely in Latin America. For now, at least, we remain decidedly downbeat.