LATIN America and the Caribbean will experience a “difficult” 2023 with barely 1% growth due to global uncertainty, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said yesterday.

The 1% 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% growth in the region, or the 1.3% estimation from the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

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. – AFP, March 20, 2023.