2011 Labour Overview. Latin America and the Caribbean.

For Latin America and the Caribbean, growth and employment ended with a positive balance in 2011. We are now at the end of a year characterized by intense uncertainty about the global economy. There is growing concern about the negative repercussions that a new recession could have on the economies and unemployment rates of our region.

Latin America and the Caribbean experienced favourable economic and employment growth in 2011, despite uncertainty about the global economy and the considerable instability of financial markets, particularly in more developed countries.

According to the most recent forecasts, the regional GDP growth rate will increase by approximately 4.5% in 2011 with respect to the previous year. This growth will be led by South American countries that export raw materials and that have closer ties with demand from emerging economies, such as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. These countries are expected to have GDP growth rates of approximately 6% in 2011.