Can Latin America's economies recover from the pandemic?

Few places have suffered as much from the Covid-19 pandemic as Latin America. A sustained commodity rally could help.  

Protest against Jair Bolsonaro
Brazil’s divisive president Jair Bolsonaro could compete against another polarising figure, former president Lula da Silva, in elections next year
(Image credit: © Shutterstock)

Few places have suffered as much from the Covid-19 pandemic as Latin America. Of the top five countries by total reported deaths globally, three – Brazil, Mexico and Peru – are in the region. Weak healthcare forced governments to implement very strict lockdowns last year, says The Economist. Tight budgets have constrained stimulus efforts. The result? GDP in Latin America and the Caribbean fell by 7% in 2020, compared with a global average contraction of 3%.

Latin America came into the crisis with “pre-existing conditions”, says Eric Parrado on Project Syndicate. Productivity has lagged more successful countries for decades. High commodity prices after the financial crisis gave Latin American governments an opportunity to turn things around. But they put reform “on the back burner” and raised spending on subsidies rather than infrastructure.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.