Cuba and Latin America: Crisis and Perspectives

Abstract

The Latin American region is in a moment of uncertainty, with at least two major challenges ahead, which demand enormous efforts to overcome the chronic crisis it has suffered in recent years. On the one hand, growth levels have stagnated and predictions are not encouraging for the end of 2019. The figures point to a stagnation of growth levels in some cases and in others to a slowdown in growth in recent years, ECLAC data (2019) indicate that average growth in the region has been deteriorating in general terms in the last five years and it is expected that 2019 will close with a growth of 0.5%, followed by a discreet expansion in 2018 of just 0.9%. Specifically, countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Argentina are highly responsible for the region's low growth, while countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Chile have maintained acceptable and in some cases good growth rates.