Slow Recovery

The region fices the threat of another lost decade, like the one it suffered in the 1980s, José Antonio Ocampo, a board member of the Bank of the Republic, Colombiaâeuro™s central bank, and professor at Columbia University, warns in an article for Project Syndicate. Just growing is not enough for South Americans to benefit from the economy; what matters is how they grow, says Daniel Titelman, chief economist at ECLAC. âeuroœThis does not mean that the governments should not be worried about the medium-term debt situation.âeuro Faced with widespread social fragility, governments need to review their budgetary priorities, bolster social projects and work to improve national consumption rates. Investors will keep an eye on consumption during 2020, but also on three mega-business opportunities: the privatization of Eletrobras, the country's state energy distribution company; the auction of5G telecom; and infrastructure projects that will be driven by the new Water and Sewage Law, approved last December.