Inter-American Development Bank predicts 'difficult' 2023 for Latin America

Latin America and the Caribbean will experience a "difficult" 2023 with barely one percent growth due to global uncertainty, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said on Sunday.

"In general, 2023 will be difficult for Latin America and the Caribbean, given the complexity of the global scenario and its significant uncertainties,"the IDB said in its 2023 Macroeconomic Report.

The one percent growth figure "is very low given the developmental challenges in our countries," said IDB chief economist Eric Parrado at the end of the financial institution's annual general assembly in Panama.

"In general, 2023 will be difficult for Latin America and the Caribbean, given the complexity of the global scenario and its major uncertainties," added Parrado.

The IDB projection is lower than the International Monetary Fund's expectation of 1.8 percent growth in the region, or the 1.3 percent estimation from the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The IDB assembly, which gathers the heads of finance from the region, took place amid the backdrop of the collapse of three banks in the United States, among them the Silicon Valley Bank, and Swiss financial institution Credit Suisse.

The IDB even contemplates the possibility of zero growth this year in the region if there is a "financial shock," Parrado warned

The gloomy forecast came a day after the IDB's new president, Ilan Goldfajn of Brazil, said the economic outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean is clouded by "overlapping crises."

However, Goldfajn expressed confidence that the region's banking system would not be affected by the uncertainty in the United States and Europe.

"The financial systems in the region are very well supervised, regulated [...], we are at a more advanced step than we were in the past," he said at a press conference.

– TIMES/AFP