GDP Growth: Brazil Lags; Peru, Colombia Lead

Mexico outperforms Brazil, while Venezuela will be the big loser.

BY JOACHIM BAMRUD

Brazil will be among the three worst economic performers in Latin America the next five years, while Colombia and Peru will be among the growth winners, according to a Latinvex analysis of new estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Meanwhile, Mexico will outperform Brazil and also see higher growth than the Latin American average this and next year and during the 2014-18 period. And Venezuela – besieged by food shortages, record inflation and widespread protests – will see the worst economic performance the next five years.

The IMF did not provide estimates for Argentina, which has been rebuked by the fund for providing unreliable economic data.  “The IMF has… issued a declaration of censure and called on Argentina to adopt remedial measures to address the quality of the official GDP data,” the fund said in its latest World Economic Outlook released April 8. “Alternative data sources have shown significantly lower real growth than the official data since 2008. In this context, the Fund is also using alternative estimates of GDP growth for the surveillance of macroeconomic developments in Argentina.”