Great Depression in Latin America

[3][4] The period saw a further shift in government economic policies in Latin America, such as in Argentina, in efforts to adjust their economies to recover from the Depression.

Latin American countries that were economically impacted by the Depression included Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, and Peru.

[5] The Great Depression, which followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929, had extreme negative effects on the countries of Latin America.

In other Latin American countries like Mexico, responses to the Depression also included an increase in industrialization, which had begun during the 19th century.

Peru's economy, prior to the Depression, specialized in exports and relied on US loans to fund public finance.

[13] The early effects of the Depression on Mexico were directly felt by the mining sector in which the overall export price index fell by 32% from 1929 to 1932.

[19] Although imports were half of pre-Depression levels, those characteristics of the Mexican economy, which were adjusted during early onset of the Depression, provided circumstances in which the declining growth had shifted to a gradual rise by 1935.

[20] The Chilean economy, according to the perspective presented by the calculations of the League of Nations, was that the country that was most severely impacted by the economic collapse characterised by the Great Depression.

That contributed to an increase in Chile's budget deficit and reduced government revenue because of its pre-Depression heavy reliance on foreign financial support, particularly from the US, to drive economic growth.

[27] During the same time period, Chile's sluggish economy was further shown by the rising unemployment and the decrease in the production of nitrate.

[30] Thus, the working class was primarily subject to the social consequences, such as poverty, created by the rise in unemployment and the deterioration of mining exports, particularly nitrate, during the Depression.

Working-slass struggle combined with economic decline to lead to the printing of more money by Chilean President Juan Antonio Montero in April 1932.

Thus, the US stock market crash and economic crisis of 1929 contributed to a fall in export revenue and employment that was largely tied to Cuba's sugar industry.

[34] The decline of Cuban sugar production, prices, and export revenue further stipulated low wages and poor conditions, as was affirmed by the British embassy in Havana in 1933, which presented the average Cuban sugar worker wage to be 25 cents for each 10-11-hour workday.