Growth in Latin America is expected to recover slightly in 2003, marking the end of the worst period since the "lost decade" of the 1980s debt crises.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) said yesterday gross domestic product for 2002 was expected to contract by about 0.5 per cent year-on-year, following growth of 0.3 per cent in 2000.
This year was also the first since the late 1980s in which the region registered net outflows of capital, while direct foreign investment hit its lowest level since 1996.
For the five years since 1998, when the impact of the Asian financial crisis was first felt in Latin America, regional output has shrunk an average 0.3 per cent, compared with growth of nearly 2 per cent from 1990 to 1997.
