In its June World Economic Outlook report published on Tuesday, the agency forecasts that this year the advance of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be 5.2 percent and then growth will decline by 2.9 percent in 2022.

Such situation, it referred, will depend on moderate progress in the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 in most countries, fewer restrictions on circulation, positive spillovers from advanced economies and rising commodity prices.

Experts deem it will take a long time for much of the region to fully recover and return to pre-pandemic production levels.

By country, the forecast for GDP growth in 2021 is 4.5 percent in Brazil, 5.0 percent in Mexico, 6.4 percent in Argentina, 5.9 percent in Colombia, 6.1 percent in Chile and 10.3 percent in Peru.

In Central America the expansion is expected to reach 4.8 percentage points, and in the Caribbean 4.7; even though the outlook for most of the economies that depend on tourism has been revised downwards since January due to the slow recovery of the sector.

According to the report, in the first half of 2021, restrictions on movement due to the health crisis adversely affected economic activity in services.

In contrast, during this period external economic conditions improved, commodity prices strengthened fiscal revenues, and remittance flows continued to be strong, contributing to consumer spending in countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, in much of the Caribbean, international tourist arrivals represent a small proportion of what they used to be before the pandemic, the study revealed.

The Bank’s briefing added that currencies have depreciated and inflation has risen in many countries.

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