Trade and Integration Monitor 2016: Downshifting: Latin America and the Caribbean in the New Normal of Global Trade

Abstract

The Trade and Integration Monitor 2016 analyzes the different aspects of a downshifting in world trade and its effects on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This is the most recent edition of a series of reports elaborated by the Trade and Integration Sector of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that study the evolution of the insertion of LAC into the world trading system, making use of data available in INTrade, the information system of the IDB on trade and integration. The present study explains how a historic deterioration in the terms of trade, as well as fluctuations in the already slow growth of trade volumes, have depressed the value of regional exports and generated deficits in the current account of the balance of payments of most countries. Subsequently, these trends are disaggregated by country, subregion, product, and export destination, and the regional trade outlook is analyzed for the short- and the long-term, taking into account the impact of the exchange rate realignments and the structural transformations occurring in the world trading system in the last two decades.