User Menu

Announcements

Logistics, Quality of Life, Remittances

Friday, 19 March 2010 08:50

Attention: open in a new window. Print

Source: Latin Business Chronicle

E-COMMERCE GROWS
Latin American e-commerce is taking off. Visa alone posted a 42 percent increase last year to $10 billion. The increase was due to a combination of factors, including more web sites offering e-commerce, including from travel, entertainment and public sector as well as major new retail offers in Brazil from Wal-Mart and Casas de Bahia, Visa says.  In Peru and Guatemala, citizens can pay taxes online with their Visa cards.

LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE
Brazil, Latin America’s second-largest trader, is the regional leader when it comes to overall logistics performance, while Cuba is the laggard, according to a new World Bank index. The Logistics Performance Index looks at factors such as customs, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics competence, tracking & tracing and timeliness. Brazil received a score of 3.20 thanks to high scores on timeliness, tracking & tracing and infrastructure. Its worst score was for customs. Mexico, Latin America’s top trading nation, ranked fourth, with a score of 3.05. Its top score was also for timeliness and lowest for customs. Cuba received a score of 2.07.

QUALITY OF LIFE
Despite all the political mess and rising crime, Argentina offers Latin America’s overall best quality of life, according to International Living’s 2010 Quality of Life Index. The index looks at nine categories, including cost of living, culture & leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety & risk and climate. Argentina receives high scores for freedom, health and environment and low scores for economy and infrastructure. Costa Rica and Panama, two popular hotspots for U.S. retirees, ranked third and fourth in Latin America (with Chile in second place).  Brazil ranked fifth, while Mexico ranked seventh. The worst place: Haiti. 
 

IKEA ENTERS LATIN AMERICA
Swedish retail chain Ikea recently opened its first outlet in Latin America – in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. President Leonel Fernandez headed the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new $85 million store.

 REMITTANCES

Remittances last year accounted for 1.5 percent of Latin America’s GDP, a slight decline compared to the 1.6 percent in 2008, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of data from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Monetary Fund. However, the bad news is that both remittances and GDP fell last year. Remittances reached a total of $58.8 billion, a 15 percent decline from 2008 and below the level of 2006, the IDB estimates. It was also the first decline registered by the IDB since it started tracking remittances in 2000.

All countries in Latin America saw declines in remittance inflows. But there were some minor changes. Mexico, the largest recipient of remittances, became the tenth-largest recipient as measured as a percent of its GDP. That was up one spot from 2008. Paraguay and Costa Rica also moved up one spot – to 8th and 12th place, respectively. Meanwhile, Ecuador and Peru each fell one spot – to 9th and 11th place, respectively.

 

 

2009 Remittances in US$ billions

 

 

as % of GDP 

 

 

 

 

Haiti

$1.64

23.8

 

Honduras

$2.48

17.0

 

El Salvador

$3.47

15.6

 

Nicaragua

$0.92

14.5

 

Guatemala

$3.91

10.7

 

Dom. Republic

$2.79

6.2

 

Bolivia

$1.02

5.8

 

Paraguay

$0.69

5.1

 

Ecuador

$2.50

4.5

 

Mexico

$21.13

2.4

 

Peru

$2.67

2.1

 

Costa Rica

$0.54

1.8

 

Colombia

$4.13

1.8

 

Panama

$0.29

1.2

 

Chile

$0.76

0.5

 

Uruguay

$0.12

0.4

 

Brazil

$4.75

0.3

 

Argentina

$0.85

0.3

 

Venezuela

$0.73

0.2

 

 

 

 

 

Latin America

$58.8

1.5%