Latin America Business Opportunities

As an overall market, Latin America is identified by four major regional markets: Mexico, South America, Central America and the Caribbean. It continues to be a major market opportunity for the U.S. with exports to the region valued at over $300 billion per year. High market growth opportunities are emerging in many industrial sectors through out Latin America.

In the world market, Latin America has had stable, real GDP performance for the past recent years and its purchasing power per capita has grown. Latin American and the Caribbean is expected to expand by 4.5% GDP in 2011 and to moderate to about 4.0% in 2012. Although the slowdown that has occurred in more advanced economies is expected to have only a moderate effect in most Latin American countries, large risks in the outlook may exist.

Over the past several years, Latin American governments have taken advantage of a very favorable global environment, and able to respond to domestic and international economic fluctuations. More recently, global slowdown fears are starting to weigh on the region's financial markets (equities, currencies, and commodities being impacted).

Key economic comparatives relative to major countries and markets around the globe are summarized in the following tables. (You can visit Consensus Economics and the IMF web sites for additional information on the economic outlook for Latin America and other countries and regions.)