This year's defining economic factoids, courtesy of the United Nations Economic Comission for Latin America, via the often perceptive Financial Times:

• LatAm is exporting... $41 bn trade surplus (its first in 50 years!)


• ... -thanks in part to high commodity prices- ... Overall commodity prices rose 15.9 per cent


• ... and it's actually fiscally conservative! Most countries are running primary fiscal surpluses.
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• Nonetheless, income per capita is low...: Below 1997 levels


• ...and it shows... More than 10 per cent overall unemployment rate.


• ...pretty bad. Almost 45 per cent of Latin Americans live below the poverty line.