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Latin American production will decrease by 9.1 percent in 2020.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Thursday assured that the economies could only be reactivated if countries manage to flatten the COVID-19 curve.
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Latin America To Face Deepest Economic Fall in a Century: ECLAC
High levels of inequality, poverty, and informality, as well as limited access to quality health care on time, explain why the pandemic is hurting Latin America so much.
Those multilateral institutions propose an approach with health, economic, and social policies to mitigate the pandemic and rebuild countries sustainably and inclusively.
“Advancing on equality is essential to control the pandemic and sustainable economic recovery”, ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena assured.
"Countries must avoid thinking that they must make a choice between reopening economies and protecting the health and well-being of their people ⚠️ This, in fact, is a false choice." @DirOPSPAHO @eclac_un #COVID19 https://t.co/HmUYOp65Cp
— PAHO/WHO (@pahowho) July 30, 2020
"We face an unprecedented challenge, which requires solid and well-funded health systems to overcome this crisis... Health is a fundamental human right and access to it must be universal," PAHO's Director Carissa Etienne said.
ECLAC and PAHO warn that the opening of the Latin American economies will fail if the countries do not previously manage to reduce the exponential increase in COVID-19 cases.
In 2020, according to ECLAC estimates, the Latin American's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will decrease by 9.1 percent. This will cause unemployment to rise to 13.5 percent and 37 percent of the population to live in poverty.
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