"Latin America is nearing the end of a lost half-decade," said Lindsay Lehr from AMI

On the stage of the Latam Crossborder Summit 2019, the expert talked about the business opportunities in the region

24.Sep.2019 13:47 BRT
UPDATED 17.Feb.2020 14:42 BRT

The leading independent market intelligence provider in Latin America, Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) expert Lindsay Lehr took the stage of the Latam Cross-Border Summit to talk about Latin America’s business opportunities and the region’s economic outlook, from an oft-overlooked perspective: that of other markets beyond Brazil and Mexico–the region’s two major economies.

Beginning her session with some of the reasons why Latin America is historically volatile, Lehr explained that the dependence on commodities, the US Federal Reserve and interest rates, and local politics are among the three main causes of such volatility in the region.

Although Brazil and Mexico–especially Brazil–are pushing Latin America ahead, taking the region toward the end of a lost half-decade for the economy, there are other countries showing a good economic momentum and an openness for disruption.

Some of the biggest trends singled out by the expert in those often forgotten countries are installments in Argentina, mobile and digital disruption in Chile, rapid conversion of cash in new verticals in Colombia, and, for Peru, Lehr forecasts a leapfrog development regarding cards usage.

But the biggest highlight suggested by AMI’s specialist was e-commerce. “Even when there is volatility, we have growth in Latin America’s e-commerce,” she said during the lecture. “E-commerce has still a long road in Latam. While we have 9% to 15% penetration of this sector in the US and 22% in China, In Mexico and Brazil, we have 2 and 3% respectively.”

Lehr presented her session in the Latam Cross-Border Summit, a payments-focused event that is powered by the Brazilian fintech EBANX and held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With more than 200 attendees, among companies and specialized entities, the event took place from September 23rd to the 26th.

The sessions and keynotes were delivered by some big names of global and local businesses and institutions from sectors such as technology, retail, payments, regulatory, as well as some experts from EBANX. DHGate; Amazon; the card processing startup Stone; and the Brazilian postal service, Correios were among some of the speakers at the Latam Cross-Border Summit.