[OC] Latin America's real GDP change 2010-2023

[u/Rauram99]

[u/Orion1248]

No Guyana 🇬🇾 worlds fastest growing economy

[u/Rauram99 → u/Orion1248]

I'd have have to change the scale. It's over 400%. Also Guyana isn't considered part of the Latin comunity.

[u/omegaphallic → u/Rauram99]

 Neither is Haiti, it's Fracophone.

[u/Massive-Cow-7995 → u/omegaphallic]

Hm, i guess french is a gaelic language then

[u/Irverter → u/omegaphallic]

In the strictly technically correct definition of latinamerica it includes french speaking areas, even Quebec.

But due to geographic distribution, it commonly means the spanish and portuguese speaking areas.

[u/HCMXero → u/Irverter]

It does not include Quebec because it’s not a country.

[u/Tonexus → u/HCMXero]

Don't tell the Québécois that.

[u/Dragonasaur → u/Tonexus]

Even when the Bloq won, they did nothing because they knew how stupid it was

[u/CurrencyDesperate286 → u/Dragonasaur]

I mean, they’ve had a very close independence referendum in the past.

[u/omegaphallic → u/Tonexus]

 Since Trump Quebecois became very patriotic. 

[u/firsteste → u/HCMXero]

Well then Canada, a Latin official language.

[u/HCMXero → u/omegaphallic]

Haiti is, do you know what “Latin” means?

[u/omegaphallic → u/HCMXero]

 I know how Latin America is used in the world, I don't care about some academic technicality.

[u/HCMXero → u/omegaphallic]

You obviously don’t know otherwise you would not have said “neither is Haiti”. The only place where I’ve seen people surprised that Haiti is considered part of Latin America is the USA.

[u/Yearlaren → u/omegaphallic]

TIL french isn't a Latin Language... why is this upvoted?

[u/Yearlaren → u/Rauram99]

"Considered"? It's definitely not part of the Latin community because they don't speak a Latin language.

[u/pocketdare]

I'm surprised Haiti isn't far lower!

[u/11160704 → u/pocketdare]

2010 was the year of the earthquake which is probably alrady accounted for in the data.

[u/Plants-An-Cats → u/pocketdare]

There was such a low base to fall from anyways.

[u/MagnusAlbusPater → u/pocketdare]

A lot of the major unrest with the gangs taking over the country was within the last year. Data stops at 2023.

[u/Mr_Axelg]

Has there been a single collapse in GDP greater than Venezuelas? Great depression was about -25% and the soviet collapse was about -40-50%. Does anything come even close?

[u/Rauram99 → u/Mr_Axelg]

I think only Zimbabue in the 2000's.

[u/rowzayduckbucky → u/Mr_Axelg]

Legit went from being the wealthiest country in LatAm to being the poorest

[u/travis0548]

Good to be the shell company capital of the world I guess

[u/Rauram99]

Sources: IMF World Economic Outlook Data. World Bank.

Done with Python: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1GcURYAO1I90GdZZvKsXL_DWi-Atwuqv_

[u/bastiancontrari → u/Rauram99]

Can you indicate the source of the cumulative Real GDP Change (%)? The data I'm looking at from the IMF doesn’t seem to match

[u/AlexMCJ → u/Rauram99]

Which data series are you using? The constant prices (real GDP) series does not give these results. Also the IMF does not publish Venezuela data anymore. I think you are using an outdated version of the WEO database

[u/Spiveym1]

Anyone have an explanation for Bolivia?

[u/catmur8 → u/Spiveym1]

Probably due to starting from a lower value. They are one of the poorer countries on this list.

[u/rowzayduckbucky]

Seems like the countries with a Pacific Coast are doing better than those on the Atlantic

[u/throwRA_157079633]

Guyana should be there as well - they're growing super fast thanks to oil.

[u/omegaphallic]

 The lowest countries are also currently the ones being rat fucked over the most by the US, and in Haiti's case France too.

[u/Zanahoria132 → u/omegaphallic]

Venezuela's GDP collapsed before US sanctions so the negative growth isn't really explained by sanctions.

I'm most interested in Cuba. They've been sanctioned forever right? What happened in the last 15 years that made things worse, rather than just stagnation?

[u/Embarrassed_Scar5506 → u/Zanahoria132]

Basically COVID crashed our tourism industry. 2018: 4,7 million tourists 2022: 1,6 million tourists  2024: 2,2 million tourists 

Apparently our economy was very dependent on tourism and that crash had a negative effect on every other economic sector.

[u/Zanahoria132 → u/Embarrassed_Scar5506]

Wow didn't know that! I hope things get better for you guys.

[u/JusticeForSocko → u/Zanahoria132]

Venezuela basically has a really terrible case of the Dutch disease. Their economy is really tied to the price of oil.

[u/TheAJx → u/JusticeForSocko]

Venezuela is deeper than that. While most sovereign wealth funds tied to oil revenue began taking off seriously in the 90s and 2000s, Chavez was just redirecting the money. And probably worst of all, rather than staffing PDVSA with competent people, he staffed the entity with cronies and neglected maintenance on key infrastructure. Venezuela is a textbook example of how poor governance, not sanctions, can sink an economy.

[u/JusticeForSocko → u/TheAJx]

Thanks! I knew there was more to it, but I didn’t remember exactly how Chavez had messed things up. But yeah, the idea that Venezuela would be doing great if it weren’t for the US sanctions is clearly politically motivated poppycock.

[u/According_to_Mission → u/Zanahoria132]

Their economy (which was historically not great) cratered during covid due to the loss of tourism revenues. They lost something like a double digit percentage of their population due to emigration in the past 5 years.

[u/codechisel → u/Zanahoria132]

Communism. Not even once.

[u/Moonagi → u/omegaphallic]

Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina (for the longest time) have inferior economic policies.