The International Monetary Fund did not improve its forecasts for Venezuela. In its most recent report, released yesterday in Lima, Peru, the agency warns that "the humanitarian crisis is intensifying in the country in the face of increasing scarcity of basic products, the collapse of the health system and high crime rates."
In April, at meetings between the IMF and the World Bank, it became clear that regional attention is focused on the situation in Venezuela. The agency calculates for this year a decline of 15% of the Venezuelan economy and 6% for 2019. The decline occurs after "an accumulated contraction of 35% between 2014 and 2017," according to the Fund.
The chief economist of the IMF for the Western Hemisphere, Alejandro Werner, affirmed in these meetings that the Venezuelan situation constitutes one of the greatest crises "of the modern economy".
The report of the Fund, which also indicates that the gross domestic product of Latin America and the Caribbean will increase 2% in 2018, was prepared before the aggravation of the crisis in Argentina.
The southern nation negotiates with the IMF for access to a loan to deal with the acute financial crisis that broke out in recent weeks and that affected it completely, due to the severe depreciation of its currency. For this year, the growth forecast is 2%, while in 2019 it will grow 3.2%.
Meanwhile, the IMF gave moderate praise to Brazil. He noted that the South American giant grew 1% in 2017 after a "deep recession" of 2 years. It will end 2018 with a growth of 2.3% and in 2019 it will reach 2.5%.