Following two years in a downward trend the value of Latin American exports fell 14.8% in 2015, and 8.5% in the first seven months of 2016, according to the Trade and Integration Monitor 2016 of the Inter-American Development Bank. Services exports, which had partially compensated the fall in merchandise trade in previous years, contracted 2.4% in 2015, the first time since the 2009 financial crisis.
The value of Latin America’s exports will continue to decline through 2015 by 14%, with Argentina faring slightly worse with a reduction of 17%, says the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) report, which also indicated that the value of imports to Argentina are set to fall by a smaller 10%.