Latin American Globalization Index 2005

Abel Halpern November 18, 2006

Originally published by Latin Business Chronicle in October 2005.

Panama is Latin America's most globalized economy, followed by the Dominican Republic, the
Latin American Globalization Index shows.
The index, developed by
Latin Business Chronicle, looks at six key indicators to rank globalization. These include exports of goods and services as a percent of GDP, imports of goods and services as a percent of GDP, foreign direct investment as a percent of GDP, tourism
receipts as a percent of GDP, remittances as a percent of
GDP and Internet penetration.
Argentina ended last due to low levels of trade and foreign direct investment.
In terms of trade groups, the CAFTA countries did best (accounting for four of the top seven ranks), while the Andean and Mercosur countries did
worst.
Among the surprises: Chile did
not score higher than fifth place, while the Dominican Republic came in second and Honduras fourth.

LATIN AMERICAN GLOBALIZATION INDEX Rank, country and score
1	Panama	14.46
2	Dom. Rep	13.54
3	Costa Rica	12.99
4	Honduras	11.20
5	Chile	10.62
6	Nicaragua	9.77
7	El Salvador	9.53
8	Uruguay	8.59
9	Mexico	8.19
10	Paraguay	7.59
11	Ecuador	7.36
12	Guatemala	6.47
13	Venezuela	6.43
14	Brazil	5.56
15	Colombia	5.55
16	Peru	5.55
17	Argentina	5.53
Source: Latin American Globalization Index 2005, © Latin Business Chronicle

The index was released in October 2005 and did not include Bolivia or Haiti, which lacked the necessary data. Subsequently, the data has become available and shows that if they were to be included, they would rank 8th and 13th, respectively.
Latin American Globalization Index
Scores for each category. For details on methodology and sources, see below.
Exports Imports FDI Tourism receipts Remittances Internet penetration
Argentina 2.4 1.5 0.12 0.17 0.02 1.32
Brazil 2.2 1.7 0.30 0.05 0.09 1.22
Chile 3.8 3.1 0.81 0.12 0.00 2.79
Colombia 1.9 2.1 0.25 0.10 0.40 0.80
Costa Rica 4.6 4.8 0.32 0.76 0.16 2.35
Dom. Rep. 4.8 4.7 0.24 1.65 1.24 0.91
Ecuador 3.0 2.8 0.40 0.12 0.57 0.47
El Salvador 2.6 4.0 0.35 0.21 1.58 0.89
Guatemala 1.7 2.8 0.05 0.29 1.02 0.60
Honduras 3.5 5.1 0.26 0.53 1.49 0.32
Mexico 3.0 3.2 0.25 0.16 0.24 1.34
Nicaragua 2.2 4.9 0.59 0.02 1.84 0.22
Panama 6.4 6.1 0.34 0.50 0.17 0.95
Paraguay 3.0 3.4 0.12 0.10 0.72 0.25
Peru 2.0 1.8 0.21 0.16 0.21 1.17
Uruguay 3.0 2.8 0.19 0.41 0.09 2.10
Venezuela 3.6 1.8 0.10 0.03 0.02 0.88

HOW WE DID IT: Methodology and sources

METHODOLOGY

We gave a score of 0,1 for each percent. For example, 4.5% resulted in a
score of 0,45. Each of the six categories was weighed equally.

SOURCES

Exports of goods and services as % of GDP
All figures except Dominican Republic by World Bank,
World Development Indicators 2005.
Dominican Republic export figures from Dominican Central Bank and GDP
figure from IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2005.

Imports of goods and services as % of GDP
All figures except Dominican Republic by World Bank,
World Development Indicators 2005.
Dominican Republic import figures from Dominican Central Bank and GDP
figure from IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2005.

FDI as % of GDP
La Inversión extranjera en América Latina y el Caribe 2004, United Nations
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, March 2005.
GDP Figures from IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2005.

Tourism receipts as % of GDP
Tourism receipts figures from the World Torism Organisation, World Tourism
Barometer, June 2005, except in case of Venezuela, where source was EIU
Executive Briefing 12 May 2005.
GDP Figures from IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2005.

Remittances as % of GDP
Remittance figures from the Inter-American Development Bank, MIF,
Migrant Remittances
GDP Figures from IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2005.

Internet penetration in 2004
All figures from the International Telecommunications Union.

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