The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented its annual report "Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2024: Low-growth trap, climate change and employment trends." This report, one of the most important of ECLAC, was presented at a press conference in Santiago, Chile, led by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Commission.
The report highlights that the region's economy will expand by 1.8% in 2024 and 2.3% in 2025. However, it warns that Latin America and the Caribbean remain trapped in a low growth trap, with weak investment and declining labour productivity. Added to this is the limited capacity of countries to implement macroeconomic policies that drive reactivation, aggravated by global uncertainty.
According to the report, over the last decade, Latin America has experienced a low economic growth, with an average rate of 0.9% in the 2015-2024 period, underlining that it is essential for the region to activate growth, in order to respond to environmental, social and labor challenges.
“Tackling the growth trap, increasing employment and creating jobs with higher productivity requires strengthening productive development policies that are complemented by macroeconomic and labor policies as well as those on climate change adaptation and mitigation,” the organization’s Executive Secretary emphasized.
The ECLAC report also highlights that economic growth by 2024 will remain low in all subregions, with South America growing by 1.5%, Central America and Mexico by 2.2%, and the Caribbean (excluding Guyana) by 2.6%. By 2025, a slight recovery is expected in the region, with a projected growth of 2.3%.
ECLAC warns about the fall in labor productivity, which in 2024 is estimated to be lower than that 1980. Employment growth has been driven by the increase of informal employment, especially among women and in low productivity sectors such as construction, trade, transport and services, which together comprise 74.4% of the informal workforce.
Regarding the impact of climate change on employment, the report shows that, without adequate investments in adaptation and mitigation to climate change, the region could lose up a loss of nearly 43 million jobs by 2050 (about 10% of the workforce), with a particularly strong impact on the agricultural and tourism sectors.