Border Crisis Overdrive?: Latin America’s Two Largest Economies Collapsing

From Christopher Woody writing at Business Insider:

In Latin America, falling commodity prices and uncertainty in some of the world’s most important economies appear to have hit the region’s two biggest economies hard.

These economic struggles, when coupled with political instability, indicate that the region will likely limp to the finish line of 2015 as its powerhouse economies face an uncertain future.

Brazil’s fraught politics and deteriorating outlook

The largest economy in Latin America is a husk of its former self. Economic activity is estimated to be shrinking at 5% per year, with a 2.06% contraction expected this year.

According to Andre Ferreira, an analyst with Futura, growth is unlikely to return before 2018.

That would be seven years of zero or negative growth for the region’s dominant economy, notes AFP.

…

Mexico’s ailing economy and withering crime problem

Latin America’s second-largest economy faces its own broad set of challenges.

Mexico opened 2015 with a GDP growth forecast that reached as high as 4.2%.

Since then, growth estimates have shed percentage points, with the most recent number predicting just 1.75% to 2.5% growth.

Read the rest of the story at Business Insider.