MEXICO CITY (dpa-AFX) – Ten heads of state and government from Latin America and the Caribbean want to discuss measures to combat inflation at a virtual summit. At the video conference meeting on April 5, joint steps to lower prices will be agreed, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Thursday.
On Mexico’s initiative, only the left-wing presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba and Honduras and the prime ministers of Central American Belize and the Caribbean state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are invited to the summit.
Better availability of food and goods by removing trade barriers and tariffs in the region could curb inflation, López Obrador said at his daily press conference. “The intention is to have enough supply and thereby fight the problem of price increase”.
Argentina, South America’s second largest economy, has one of the highest annual inflation rates in the world at 102.5 percent. Inflationary pressures are lower in Brazil and Mexico, the largest economies in Latin America. In Mexico, the inflation rate in February was 7.6 percent compared to the same month last year, in Brazil it was 5.6 percent./aso/DP/jha