Publications

Global uncertainty, especially on geopolitical and commercial issues, has been creating a complex and atypical environment for Latin America in 2025. This has led to high market volatility, caution from monetary policy, and broader than normal ranges when forecasting economic variables.

In recent months, the main feature of the global economic outlook has been the increase in uncertainty. The erratic tariff policy of the American administration and the lack of precedent for recent protectionist shocks have made reading the economic outlook complicated.

The ECB cut rates to 2% with broad consensus and signaled the rate-cutting cycle may be nearing its end. While confident in the inflation path, high geopolitical and trade uncertainty keeps future decisions open.

The last months of 2024 gave some glimpses of the challenges Latam could face in the coming years. However, looking beyond the first quarter of 2025, some—albeit not all—of these warning signs have faded.

Profitability and NIMs of the sector have started to improve in 4Q24, which will continue with the rate-cutting cycle of the CBRT. The monetary stance remains to be supported with the macro-prudential measures. We expect the ROE of deposit banks to barely improve to 30% by end 2025 from 28.4% at the end of 2024.

The latest meetings of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have confirmed what was expected: that monetary policy in both regions is starting to diverge.

The euro/dollar pair has fallen sharply from the highs seen toward the middle of 2024 (1.12) to reach its current level of 1.04, representing a depreciation of 8%.

The Board of Banrep reduced its monetary policy rate by 25 bps, bringing it to 9.50%. This decision was split: 5 members in favor of the 25 bp reduction, one in favor of a 50 bp reduction and one in favor of a 75 bp reduction. This is an important change in the Board's stance, after 6 meetings with rate cuts of 50bp.