LAC’s insecure economies

With falling commodity prices, dwindling Chinese growth and tightening financial conditions, the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have once again revealed their vulnerability to global headwinds – albeit to varying degrees. Dragged down by the faltering economies of Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, the region has been experiencing economic deceleration for the past five years, with 2015 marking the first of overall regional contraction since 2009. This comes at a time when popular disgruntlement with political leaders has been rekindled as a result of macroeconomic mismanagement, high-level corruption and widespread urban insecurity. Amid looming policy paralysis, the outlook for the major LAC economies is bleak.