Latin Americans Disillusioned with 2006 Economy
(ARGM) - Very few Latin Americans qualify their own country’s finances in a positive way, according to the 18-country Latinobarómetro released by The Economist.

Only 18 per cent of all respondents in every nation surveyed rate their economy as good or very good, but 31% believe the situation is at least slightly better than last year.

Central American nations are among the worst rated. Only six per cent of respondents in Nicaragua have a good view of the country’s current economic situation, as well as eight per cent of those in El Salvador, 12%  in Guatemala, 14%  in Costa Rica and 17%  in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Panama.

Less than 20%  of respondents in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay and El Salvador think the situation has improved since 2005. Conversely, 43%  of those surveyed in Venezuela hold the current economic situation in a positive light, and 59% think of it as better than last year’s. 58%  of Argentinean respondents also believe their country was better off in 2006 than in 2005.

On Mar. 1, El Salvador became the first Central American country to fully implement the Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), the free trade agreement between the region and the United States. Honduras and Nicaragua followed suit on Apr. 1, and Guatemala on Jul. 1. Costa Rican legislators have yet to ratify the treaty, and the Dominican Republic has yet to implement it.


Polling Data
How would you generally qualify the country’s current economic situation?
("Good" and "very good" responses only)

Do you consider the country’s current economic situation to be much better, slightly better, the same, slightly worse, or much worse than twelve months ago?
("Slightly better" and "much better" responses only)

Source: Corporación Latinobarómetro / The Economist
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 20,234 adults in 18 countries, conducted from Oct. 3 to Nov. 5, 2006. Margin of error for each country is 3 per cent.