While the world is undergoing grave upshots of Covid-19 and the Ukraine crisis, even the developed countries are experiencing upswing inflation in their economy; the Latin American countries would not be expected with an anomaly. Consisted of 33 countries, no sooner had the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region been striving to recover from the vile foray of Covid-19, than the countries got entangled with another brace of nefarious labyrinths- rising inflation and debt crisis. As the consequences of Covid-19, the region suffered not only from the high per capita deaths and poor health crisis but also from the economic contraction and rise of poverty.
However, as an egregious outcome of the Ukraine crisis, most of the LA countries are facing a high rising in goods prices such as fuel prices. Even before that, by the end of 2021, the inflation of median consumer price in the region had doubled, rising to 7% which was 4% average before 2019. However, in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guatemala and many other LAC countries, inflation has hit with high rate. In 2021, Latin America & Caribbean inflation rate was 4.26% with an increase of 2.88% from 2020 which was 1.38%. For 2022 and 2023, according to forecasters, the inflation rate of this region would be 12.1% and 8.7% respectively, the highest rates for the last 25 years. In their inflation in 2021, food and energy have played a crucial role as main contributors. These two factors accounted for more than 75% of inflation in Paraguay, 90% in Costa Rica, 60% in Colombia and 66% in Brazil.
– Kawsar Uddin Mahmud is a Research Intern of the KRF Center for Bangladesh and Global Affairs (CBGA).
