By: Staff Writer
January 30, 2026
The Inter-American Development Bank said in a new report that export values increased across all Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) subregions, particularly in Central America.
The report: “Trade Trends Estimates: Latin America and the Caribbean. 2026 Edition,” also said: “Improvements in South America and Mesoamerica were driven by faster growth in export volumes. Meanwhile, the Caribbean’s strong aggregate performance masks substantial disparities across countries and pronounced volatility in export dynamics.”
The report also said: “While leading indicators show signs of a shift toward sustained expansion in regional trade in the final months of 2025, the outlook remains highly uncertain and tilted to the downside, reflecting shifts in trade policy, geopolitical tensions, and a downward trend in prices for some commodities.
“Despite the uncertainty surrounding shifts in trade policy at the global level, the region’s exports performed well on average throughout 2025. Although this improvement was broad-based, export dynamics varied across LAC’s subregions.”
The report continued: “The prices of LAC’s main export commodities followed markedly different paths over the last year.
“Among the agricultural products, coffee continued to post exceptional gains, though volatility persisted due to climate events and regulatory changes in markets. In contrast, soybean and sugar prices continued to decline.
“In the extractive sector, iron ore and oil trended downward throughout the year. Conversely, gold remained on a particularly strong upward trajectory, and copper also performed well.”
It also said: “Demand for goods from LAC’s main trading partners has been volatile and largely asynchronous over the last two years.
“While the European Union’s imports from the region have grown at a relatively steady pace, China’s imports contracted sharply in the first half of the year before rebounding significantly in the second half.
“Imports by the United States and within the region remained on positive ground, but both slowed slightly from midyear onward.
The European Union’s purchases from LAC entered an expansionary phase in mid-2024 and have sustained strong growth since then, ending 2025 with an 11.3 percent increase, up from 4.2 percent in 2024. Total imports by the European Union recovered more gradually, returning to positive ground only in early 2025 and finishing the year with an estimated 6.0 percent increase. As a result, LAC recorded a slight gain in market share, increasing from 5.2 percent to 5.3 percent of the European Union total extrabloc imports.
In 2025, China’s imports from LAC are estimated to have remained flat on average compared to 2024. This outcome is the result of a sharp rise in the second half of 2025, offsetting the contraction of the first half of the year. China’s total imports followed a similar but less pronounced pattern, ending the year with an estimated decline of 0.9 percent. This led to LAC’s market share rising modestly from 9.3 percent in 2024 to 9.6 percent in 2025.
The United States’ imports from LAC grew relatively steadily over the past year. However, a deceleration was observed starting in mid-2025, and year-on-year growth rates turned negative from August onward. US purchases from LAC are estimated to have grown by 5.4 percent on average in 2025, less than the 7.3 percent recorded in 2024. Total US imports experienced strong growth in the first half of 2025 due to the frontloading of purchases in anticipation of tariff hikes, then weakened rapidly before beginning to contract in year-on-year terms in August. They are estimated to have increased by an average of 7.2 percent in 2025. Consequently, LAC lost 0.1 percentage points of its share in total US purchases, which declined from 20.1 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025.
Lastly, estimates indicate that in 2025, LAC’s intraregional purchases reversed the contraction of 2024, expanding by 3.6 percent. In parallel, total import growth accelerated from 3.2 percent in 2024 to 6.1 percent in 2025. As a result, given that intraregional imports grew at a slower pace than total imports, the share of intraregional trade fell from 13.7 percent in 2024 to 13.2 percent in 2025