Speakers:

• Alejandro Werner, Director, Western Hemisphere Department, International Monetary Fund 
• John Authers, Senior Editor for Markets, Bloomberg News @johnauthers (interviewer)

Is Latin America suffering from secular stagnation? In this year's Latin America's 2020 Economic Outlook event with IMF's Alejandro Werner and Bloomberg's John Authers, the speakers spoke on Latin America's growth hurdles and reflected on the 2019 numbers. They also covered the opportunities that might arise after a period of trade wars, new governments, and uncertainty on trade agreements such as UMSCA. The IMF expects Latin America's growth in 2020 to be at 0.1 percent and Werner explains the region deals with a combination of "secular and cyclical issues."

Authers also asked Werner about debt, foreign investment, and the cases of Argentina and Chile. Werner answered audience questions on the largest economies in the region. When it comes to Brazil, he said the outcome of the 2019 pension reform has been good but the effect of the country's recent fiscal policies on growth were not seen in 2019. "A little bit of investment and consumption would push the Brazilian economy to 2 percent growth," Werner explained. For Mexico, investors' attitude has been to wait and see, Werner says. The approval of USMCA has lifted a significant amount of uncertainty for the country, but people are waiting on the direction of AMLO's so-called Fourth Transformation. "[If I'm an investor] I wait and see where this transformation goes."