2005 ICP Regional Summary: Latin America and Caribbean
Overview
Elevencountries from the Latin America and Caribbean(LAC) region participated in the 2005 ICP. Allbut one of the countries participated in the South America program coordinated by Statistics Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Statistics Canada.Mexico took part in the Eurostat/OECD program.
All regional values shown below include only the countries that participated in the 2005 International Comparison Program.
Size of the economy
PPP-based GDP figures indicate that the LAC economies account for 8 percent of the world economy as opposed to 5 percent based on GDP converted to US dollar using market exchange rates.Brazil and Mexico are the largest economies in the region and account for nearly two-thirds of LAC’s GDP and 61 percentof the population.
Living Standards
The region’s average GDP per capita is $9064 in PPP terms.Chile, Mexico, and Argentina have the highest GDP per capita in the region and Paraguay and Bolivia the lowest.
Economy / GDP per capita, PPP ($)Latin America and Caribbean / 9,064
Chile / 12,277
Mexico / 11,317
Argentina / 11,076
Venezuela, RB / 9,888
Uruguay / 9,277
Brazil / 8,606
Ecuador / 6,541
Peru / 6,474
Colombia / 6,314
Paraguay / 3,905
Bolivia / 3,623
Actual Individual Consumption
Actual individual consumption is measured by the total value of household final consumption expenditure, expenditures by non-profit institutions (such as NGOs and charities) serving households, and government expenditure on individual consumption goods and services (such as education or health).LAC’s actual individual consumption is above the world average. Country values range from the nearly one and one-half times the world average for Mexico to less than half the world average for Bolivia.
PPP-based measures of collective government consumption
Collectivegovernment consumption expenditures consist of expenditures incurred by general and local governments for collective consumption services such as defense, justice, general administration,and the protection of the environment. Lower prices for such services in developing countries tend to reduce the dispersion of collective government consumption per capita across regions compared to that observed for per capita GDPs. Country values range from nearly one and one-half times the world average for Brazil to one-half or less of the world average for Paraguay, Peru, and Bolivia.
PPP-based measures of gross fixed capital formation
Gross fixed capital formation measures countries’ investment expenditures, which are mostly comprised of purchases of equipment and construction services.Chile has the highest gross fixed capital formation per capita of 125 percent of the world average. Bolivia and Paraguay lag far behind with just over 15 and 25 percent of the world average, respectively.
Price level indexes
Aprice level index (PLI) is the ratio of a PPP to the market exchange rate of the numeraire currency. PLIs are used to compare price levels between countries. The PLI indicates the relative price of GDP (or its components) in a country, as if it were “purchased” after acquiring local currency at the prevailing exchange rate. PLIs are generally low in poorest countries. This reflects the common experience of travelers who find many (but not all) of the goods and services in the poorest countries relatively cheap compared to similar products in their home country.
Price levels generally rise with GDP per capita. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico’s goods and services are the most expensive and Bolivia’s the least expensive. Argentina has a similar value of GDP per capita as Mexico but less expensive goods and services.