Zika virus unlikely to have major economic impact

The Zika virus has hit the headlines in recent weeks due to its rapid spread across Latin America and the suspected link with thousands of cases of serious birth defects in Brazil. But, while it is clearly an important public health issue and there is still a large degree of uncertainty, as things stand the economic impact is likely to be small. As such, we don’t expect it to be a major drag on the region’s economic growth this year.