Pacific Alliance Business and Investment Guide 2018-2019

Third edition of the Pacific Alliance Member Countries Business and Investment Guide in English

The Pacific Alliance, formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, is one of the most relevant efforts towards regional integration seen in recent decades. Its objectives are aimed at facilitating the liberalization of the exchange of goods and services, the free movement of people and capital, and fostering mechanisms for cooperation among the member countries.

Taken as an economic bloc, the Pacific Alliance is the eighth largest economy in the world, accounting for over 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Latin America and the Caribbean. It has a collective population of more than 225 million people. The Pacific Alliance offers notable competitive advantages and a wide-ranging network of trade agreements with the world’s most developed economies, with a clear focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

The common denominator among the Pacific Alliance’s member countries is their openness toward foreign investment, as well as the application of macroeconomic policies that promote private initiative and free trade. They also share a recent history of economic stability. It is no accident that they occupy the top four places in the country investment grade ranking for Latin America, in addition to registering an average growth rate that is double the annual average in Latin America.

As an integration mechanism, the Pacific Alliance is important in economic and trade terms. Taken as a bloc, it is the world’s eighth-largest economy, with a cumulative GDP of US$1.950 billion (accounting for over 40% of the GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean).

It also has a population of 225 million inhabitants, and a GDP per capita in excess of US$18,000 (measured in purchasing power parity, or “PPP”). On the other hand, in 2016, it received 41% of the direct foreign investment destined for the region, totaling more than US$42 billion. In 2017, the countries of the Pacific Alliance achieved an average inflation rate of 3.6%, and an unemployment rate of 6.1%, while growing by an average of 2.0%. They are predicted to grow by an average of 3.0% in 2018, which is above the average forecast for Latin America, estimated at 2.0%, and they are expected to experience an average inflation of 3.6%.

Finally, on July 24, 2018, during the 13th Pacific Alliance Summit, the Vision 2030 document was approved, with the goal of expanding and solidifying the bloc’s integration over the next decade, increasing digital connectivity and enlarging its area of influence.