Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior SA Bladex (BLX) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior SA Bladex (BLX) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

Joining us today are Mr. Gabriel Tolchinsky, Chief Executive Officer; and Ms. Ana Graciela de Mendez, Chief Financial Officer.. I will address the global macroeconomic context, economic and business environment in Latin America and other specific developments affecting our portfolio.. To summarize the global context, we see the potential for more noise on the trade front, despite the signing of the first phase of the Chinese US agreement, global growth below potential, geopolitical risk coming from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, and what we call it, idiosyncratic risks from countries, such as Argentina, Italy and. Economic growth came in at 0.1%, significantly below the 1% growth of 2018, and significantly below beginning of year expectations of 2.1%.. After other than 2016 when Brazil experienced its sharpest recession in the last 70 years, 2019 was the slowest growth year for Latin America in a decade.. Mexico had zero growth, a remarkable decoupling from a strong US economy, and Argentina's GDP shrunk by 3.3%.. Our current expectations for economic growth are 2.4% for Brazil.. We are looking to increase exposure there to the extent that we can identify growth in credit demand and can profitably lend to companies that meet