Former Colombian president Ivan Duque (L) former Chilean President and Commission Co-Chair Michelle Bachelet (C), and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Jose Manuel Salazar Xirinach, participate in the presentation of the report "Disruptions and Opportunities: Proposals for Latin America and the Caribbean to Thrive in the New Geopolitical Era," in Santiago, Chile, on Aug. 4. Photo by Elvis Gonzalez/EPA
Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Latin America is stuck in what the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ECLAC, calls a "low-growth-capacity trap."
The commission projects regional growth of just 2.2% in 2026, which would mark five consecutive years of growth averaging around 2.3%, a pace ECLAC warns is insufficient to produce sustained gains in per capita income.
That is a familiar story with a discouraging arc, one this series has traced through the commodity boom of the 2000s and the crash that followed.
The pandemic added its own chapter and left behind a shift the region has not yet fully exploited: a leap in digital adoption. Whether Latin America converts that shift into higher productivity will depend less on favorable external conditions than on deliberate policy choices.
