Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2022

The 2022 edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, its seventy-fourth issue, consists of three parts. Part I outlines the region’s economic performance in 2021 and analyses trends in the early months of 2022, as well as the outlook for growth for the year. It examines the external and domestic factors that have influenced the region’s economic performance in 2021, trends for 2022, and how these factors will affect economic growth in the coming years.

Part II of this edition presents some of the main challenges the region faces in investing for sustainable and inclusive economic growth. It analyses the trends in total investment over the last 70 years and highlights the profound change brought about by the 1980s debt crisis, with a slowdown in investment from the 1990s onwards. This part also points to the low level of public investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, in relative and absolute terms, which has been significantly lower than those in the emerging and developing economies of Asia in recent decades, during which these countries have built dynamic and diversified economies. Limited investment flows have resulted in a stock of public capital that is insufficient to provide the economic and social services needed to boost growth and lay the foundations for sustainable and inclusive development. Lastly, it also examines the opportunities and challenges of investment in the region’s copper, iron and lithium industries in the context of the energy transition, with a special focus on the role of what has been termed “green factors”. Against a backdrop of increasing demand for minerals, public policies must help to transform the mining sector, placing priority on managing the societal and environmental impact of mining activities and on economic considerations.

Part III of this publication may be accessed on the website of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (www.eclac.org). It contains the notes relating to the economic performance of the countries of Latin America and the  Caribbean in  2021 and the first half of 2022, together with their respective statistical annexes. The cut-off date for updating the statistical information in this publication was 15 July 2022.