This is CBS, I in the World.

I'm John Batchelor with the New World Report, Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College traveling.

He's in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

We address the whole region, however, with a disappointing report from the IMF about the year 2025.

A forecast contraction in Mexico's 2025 economic output accounts for most of the IMF's estimate

for a slowdown in Latin America's and the Caribbean's GDP growth this year.

The International Monetary Fund expect economic output growth

in Latham and the Caribbean to decelerate to 2% from last year's 2.4, down from a January

estimate for 2.5 growth. This is disappointing, Professor, especially for Mexico. Is it a blow to the region

where they counting on growth or can they weather this the way they have negatives in the past? Thank you.

The regional certainly weather the changes in growth expectations in the way that they've weathered

many other economic and financial crises in the way that they've weathered many other economic

and financial crises in the past.

But it really is a reflection of the degree to which the new U.S. tariff policies have impacted

different states differentially.

And so overall, as you pointed out, the hit that the IMF expects from its previous forecast of

2.5% growth to its revised down forecast of only 2% growth. The biggest impacted was Mexico,

of course, connected to the U.S. economy who saw a 1.7 percentage point swing. The IMF previously saw the Mexican economy, which had always been struggling because of what

was seen as an anti-US or anti-business, I should say, posture and in some concerns over

judicial security, security of contracts, which had slowed down investment.

But IMF had lowered Mexico's expectation from growing at 1.4% to actually declining this year

at 0.3%. The only of the major nations in the region that the IMF survey were expected

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