The Eco­nom­ic Com­mis­sion for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean (Eclac) has re­vised its eco­nom­ic growth pro­jec­tions for the re­gion for 2016 and now ex­pects an av­er­age con­trac­tion of -0.9 per cent for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean this year. Eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty is ex­pect­ed to pick up in 2017 with av­er­age growth of 1.5 per cent, ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease by the Unit­ed Na­tions agency yes­ter­day.

The pro­jec­tions for 2017 re­flect ex­pec­ta­tions of more aus­pi­cious glob­al con­di­tions than in 2015 and 2016. Prices for com­modi­ties in 2017 will show gains over av­er­age-2016 lev­els and growth is ex­pect­ed to be stronger in the economies of the re­gion's trad­ing part­ners.

As in 2016, growth in 2017 will show marked dif­fer­ences be­tween coun­tries and sub­re­gions, Eclac re­ports. In the Eng­lish- and Dutch-speak­ing Caribbean, av­er­age growth is es­ti­mat­ed at 1.4 per cent for 2017, con­trast­ing pos­i­tive­ly with the con­trac­tion of -0.3 per cent ex­pect­ed for this year.

The economies of South Amer­i­ca, which spe­cial­ize in pri­ma­ry goods–par­tic­u­lar­ly oil, min­er­als and foods�will post av­er­age growth of 1.1 per cent in 2017, con­trast­ing with a con­trac­tion es­ti­mat­ed at -2.2 per cent in 2016.

The economies of Cen­tral Amer­i­ca are ex­pect­ed to reg­is­ter growth of 4.0 per cent in 2017, above the 3.7 per cent, pro­ject­ed for 2016. For Cen­tral Amer­i­ca plus Mex­i­co, the pro­jec­tions are 2.5 per cent for 2016 and 2.6 per cent for 2017.

Ac­cord­ing to Eclac, stronger in­vest­ment and bet­ter pro­duc­tiv­i­ty are need­ed in or­der to main­tain a sus­tained growth path and sup­port the high­er growth rates pro­ject­ed for 2017. Here, in­vest­ment in in­fra­struc­ture and tech­no­log­i­cal in­no­va­tion must play a key role.

In view of the cur­rent eco­nom­ic down­turn, Eclac again af­firms that the re­gion needs a pro­gres­sive struc­tur­al change with an en­vi­ron­men­tal big push to dri­ve de­vel­op­ment based on equal­i­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Pub­lic and pri­vate in­vest­ment poli­cies need to be co-or­di­nat­ed across dif­fer­ent ar­eas to re­shape pat­terns of pro­duc­tion, con­sump­tion and en­er­gy, based on learn­ing and in­no­va­tion.