Latin American productivity problems

The Economist had a good feature story on this topic, here are a few points:

1. According to the IMF, Latin America will grow at only 0.9% this year.

2. Brazil may do -1.25%, while Argentina and Venezuela continue to deteriorate.

3. Given the location of South America, it is harder for those countries to plug into global supply chains.  Of the Latin countries, only Mexico has managed this, largely because of its proximity to the United States.  Yet even Mexico has grown an average of only 2.4% a year over the last twenty years.

4. Latin American productivity levels were closer to those of the United States in 1960 than they are today.

5. There is far too much labor in the informal economy.

6. Latin America as a whole invests only 3% of its gdp in infrastructure, compared to 6% for India and 9% for China.