INTrade: Latin America Trade Trend Estimates: 2012
Date issued
Dec 2012
After posting double digit gains in 2010-2011, Latin America's export growth declined to just 1.5% in 2012 for a total value of slightly more than $1 trillion, according to figures just released by the Integration and Trade Sector of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). These results reflected uneven economic conditions in Latin America's major trade partners. In Europe, economic setbacks resulted in a 5% drop in demand for Latin American exports, while lower growth in the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Korea sharply slowed the region's export growth to Asia as a whole, from 25% in 2011 to only 1% this year. In one bright spot, incipient recovery in the United States fueled growth in Latin American exports to that country by an estimated 3%. The 2012 trade estimates, published in the IDB's Latin American Trade Trend Estimates 2012, are based on partial monthly and quarterly data of 16 Latin American countries from official national and international sources, as well as the Bank's INTrade Information System.