WASHINGTON, Nov 9, CMC – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says exports from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) grew 19.5 per cent year-on-year in the first half of this year, outpacing the 14.5 per cent increase in world trade.
The Washington-based financial institution said the exports were driven by higher prices for oil and other commodities and by demand for infrastructure associated with artificial intelligence (AI).
“The region’s strong export performance opens an opportunity to attract more foreign investment,” says the IDB’s Trade and Integration Monitor 2026.
The report notes that, despite a challenging global environment, the region delivered a “strong performance”, driven mainly by higher export volumes, with rising prices also contributing.
Mexico led regional growth at 24.6 per cent on the back of sales of AI infrastructure equipment to the United States.
The IDB said that export growth in the Caribbean at 19.1 per cent, concentrated in Guyana and Suriname, and in South America was driven by higher prices for mining and energy products, particularly oil.
“The trade resilience of Latin America and the Caribbean is an opportunity to attract more investment,” said Paolo Giordano, principal economist in the IDB’s Productivity, Trade, and Innovation Sector.
“To seize it, the region can pair its international trade and investment commitments with complementary domestic regulatory frameworks that give investors certainty,” he added.
The report notes that Latin America and the Caribbean’s share of US imports, the main destination for the region’s export growth, reached a record high of 22.1 per cent in the first half of 2026, even as US purchases from the rest of the world declined.
It said the region also regained market share in Europe.
The report states that although the region still attracts more foreign direct investment (FDI) relative to the size of its economy than any other region, it received 4.5 per cent less investment in 2023–2025 than in 2012–2014, and its share of the global FDI stock fell from 7.1 per cent to six per cent.
The report notes that the region can benefit from double taxation treaties, bilateral investment treaties, and trade agreements with investment chapters, “as these are associated with a higher likelihood of investment ties between countries.”
It said the provisional application of the European Union-Mercosur trade agreement, the modernisation of other trade agreements, and the reshaping of global value chains, driven by artificial intelligence and the energy transition, “open a window of opportunity for the region.”
The report, therefore, argues that the region’s external trade agenda should be accompanied by complementary reforms to national regulatory frameworks and by investment in public goods that lower the costs faced by private companies when expanding into international markets.
CMC/nk/ir/2026