Latin America begins to recover from global economic crisis

The economy of Latin America has begun to recover from the global economic crisis, the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) announced on Monday.

FGV said in its study with the Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich (IFO) that the economy of Latin American had entered a good recovery period.

According to the study, which analyzed the economic conditions in the countries of the continent and their recovery, Latin America registered an Economic Situation Indicator (ICE) of 5.6 points in January 2010, up from 5.2 points in October 2009. ICE goes from one to nine, any figure above five represents an optimistic stance of the economic situation.

The ICE is formed by the present Situation Index (ISA) and the Expectations Index (IE). In January, Latin America's ISA jumped from 3.3 to 4.0 points, which is considered as the main reason for the increase of the ICE.

That means the recovery of the Latin America is steady, even though the region's economic activity has yet to return to pre-crisis levels, FGV said. Latin America's IE in January increased to 7.1 points from 7.0 points last October.

Brazil registered the best figure in Latin America in the study, with an ICE of 7.8 points last month, FGV said. Other four countries which registered an ICE above 5.0 points are Chile (7.4 points), Peru (7.3 points), Uruguay (7.0 points) and Argentina (5.3 points). The lowest figure (3.0 points) was with Venezuela, the only country which remains in recession.

Source: Xinhua