Latin America's economy is seen growing some 4 percent this year, with dollar weakness helping the outlook for the region, the Inter-American Development Bank's chief economist said in an interview published on Sunday. "For 2004 a growth rate of around 5 percent is expected and for 2005, around 4 percent," Chief Economist Guillermo Calvo said in an interview with Spanish newspaper ABC.
He said the outlook was "very good".
"On the one hand global financial conditions have improved and also the devaluation of the dollar against the euro is good news for the region as most of the countries have their debt in dollars and also many of them export to the euro zone," Calvo added.
The dollar closed at $1.304 to the euro on Friday, compared with $1.248 a year earlier.
At the beginning of 2004 the IADB had been forecasting gross domestic product growth of 4 percent for that year in the region, but in December said growth would come in above 5 percent.