By Nouriel Roubini and Bertrand Delgado
We maintain that Latin America–LatAm–will expand in 2010 after contracting more than 2% in 2009. Better global growth prospects and solid commodity prices will support growth in the region. However, differentiation in domestic demand dynamics will play a key role.
We have revised upward our growth expectations for Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Peru; maintained our projection for Colombia; and lowered them for Chile (due to the earthquake) and Venezuela. Mexico will benefit the most from the upward revisions to our U.S. growth outlook, while domestic demand will likely catch up in Q2 2010. Meanwhile, Brazil’s stronger-than-expected domestic demand will be enhanced by the relatively benign external backdrop.
Inflation will likely climb in 2010 but it will remain within the central bank inflation target ranges, except for Mexico. In most countries, high food prices, as a result of adverse weather conditions, have continued to deteriorate inflation …
Argentina, Mexico and Brazil Internet Usage Soars
October 15th, 2009The number of Internet users grew substantially in the three main Latin American countries during the August 2008 – August 2009 period, according to figures released by ComScore. Argentina is the country that grew the most with an annual growth rate of 29% to 11 million users, vs. 22% in Brazil to 31 million users and 14% in Mexico to more than 13 million users.
What online destination are taking advantage of this growth, which ones are laging behind? Google and Microsoft continue to be in the top position in most Latin American countries. Both media properties’ number of unique users grew by approximately 20% (see the tables at the end of this article).
Mexico is the only large country where Google loses the first position. Microsoft sites lead in Mexico with a difference of over 400,000 unique users over Google. …
Medical Tourism: Where Latin America has an Edge over Asia
June 16th, 2009
Cultural familarity and proximity are key advantages Latin America has over Asia
As many as 23 million US citizens will seek medical treatment overseas by the year 2017 (spending close to $80 billion), and as much as 50% of those treatments will take place in Latin America.
Despite President Obama’s remarks today about the need to shore up the US healthcare system, there is little doubt that an increasing number of citizens will take advantage of what is seen as inexpensive and reliable health care services south of the border.
With such a huge upside, it’s no wonder that medical tourism development leaders in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, and El Salvador are looking to get a stake in this growing market.
So what does make …
Avaya Eyes Major Contact Center Upside across Region
April 4th, 2009Avaya is bravely pursuing its 21st century vision of the global call center and sees Latin America and the Caribbean playing a major role on the worldwide stage. Avaya boasts strong presence across the region, whith huge market share numbers in long-time BPO stronghold, Argentina. It will be worth paying particular attention to two key themes outlined in this report:
1. The increased reliance on local channel partners to drive business.
2. The realization of the single virtual contact center, which will rely on automatic call distribution sytems (ACD) that will in effect flatten the globally-interlinked network into a single tier architecture with one set of applications.
