📊 Services Boom

From primary goods to a thriving service export industry.

Welcome to Latinometrics. We bring you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.

Economy 💼

By now, we all know that there’s not any single one-size-fits-all approach to development.

Some countries make their wealth in high-tech machinery and manufacturing. Some in the diffusion of gains from key energy commodities. Others as financial hubs.

However, generally speaking there’s an orthodox view to development which sees countries following along a certain path, a certain three-sector economic cycle.

First there are primary exports—raw materials that take little education or productivity to exploit, but also are finite and subject to global prices. Think of soy in the Southern Cone, oil in Venezuela, or copper in Chile. Great when prices are up, bad when prices are down.

Then there might be industrialization, a transition towards manufacturing. Now there’s domestic production of manufactured goods which command a higher price and are more sustainable. Think of Mexico’s booming auto industry, or the way China became the “world’s factory floor.”

And then, there’s services. Tourism, finance, hospitality, IT, education, etc. This is what much of the US economy is based on, what has powered European growth in recent decades.

Latin America Has Become a $190B-a-Year Services Market