Strong demand and market conditions are driving Latin American growth opportunities for North American corporates in a number of industries, according to a new Fitch Ratings report. Fitch’s report aggregates public comments made by 22 North American companies across five industry sectors.
Fitch forecasts 3.7% Latin America GDP growth in 2013 and 2.9% in 2014, up from forecasted growth of 2.8% in 2012. At the micro level, demand from consumers remains robust in most countries due to low unemployment levels, rising wages, modest inflation and improving consumer confidence. Inflation remains a key regional risk with several Latin American central banks having taken actions to weaken their currencies.
For companies in the natural resources sectors, aggressive oil/gas production targets by Latin American National Oil Companies (NOCs) continue to drive high levels of demand for drilling and service providers. Likewise, U.S. refiners are benefiting from robust demand for refined product imports in Latin America, matched with regional capacity constraints and select operational issues.
Latin America continues to provide a strong growth platform for agrochemical companies operating in the region with Brazil and Argentina producing large soybean crops and growing corn plantings
The full report ‘Latin American Demand: What North American Corporates are Saying in Q4’ is available at ‘www.fitchratings.com‘.