Latin America and the Caribbean have suffered what the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects Report (WESP) Report for 2021 has described as “an economic downturn of historic proportions” arising mostly out of the health crisis resulting from the onset of the novel coronavirus.
Pointing its finger unerringly at the onslaught of the single biggest global health crisis in generations, the report says that economic activities in the region had been flattened by “prolonged national lockdowns, weaker merchandise exports and a collapse in tourism,” circumstances which it says had undermined economic activities and which had come on the back of “several years of disappointing growth.”
In the ensuing economic mayhem, the WESP report says, real GDP in the region is estimated to have declined by 8% last year.
