Outlook brightens, Mexico to stay ahead of Brazil

Growth in Latin America has accelerated in recent months and we expect the upturn to continue in most countries over the coming quarters. Nonetheless, growth is unlikely to return to the rates seen in 2010-11 – we expect regional GDP to expand by 3.0% in 2013 and 3.5% 2014. What’s more, there will be a wide variation in the performance of individual economies. Most notably, Mexico should continue to outperform Brazil, thus cementing its position as the fastest growing of the region’s major economies. Elsewhere, however, Argentina and Venezuela will spend much of the next couple of years flirting with recession.