The term references the four larger Pacific Latin American emerging markets that share common trends of positive growth, stable macroeconomic foundations, improved governance and an openness to global integration.

[2] The Puma, an American cat found along Latin America's Pacific Coast, is “rapid, agile, intelligent, independent, and strong”: qualities attributed to the Chilean, Colombian, Mexican, and Peruvian economies in the 21st century.

[6] In a Wall Street Journal feature, journalist Mary Anastasia O'Grady described the development model of the Pumas, in terms of a focus on openness, currency stability, fiscal restraint, and competition as "doing the heavy lifting" to ensure economic success.

Central banks help guide or stabilize movements via foreign exchange interventions, such as calls or puts on US dollars, or swaps that offer hedges without committing reserves.

Such pressure has previously proven disastrous in emerging markets where rigid currencies and brittle monetary systems ultimately cracked under stress, including during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The improved governance has however, played a factor in the Pumas taking the top places among Latin American nations in the World Bank’s 2014 Ease of Doing Business survey.

[20] The Pacific Pumas have actively pursued real integration in Europe, East Asia and the Americas—and approach that has provoked comparisons to the Asian Tigers.

[25] On February 10, 2014, the Presidents of the four countries met in Cartagena, Colombia, for the VIII Summit of the Pacific Alliance, and formally signed agreements eliminating tariffs on 92 percent of the trade between them.

[30] The Pacific Pumas positive disposition towards democracy and integration make the four countries potential partners for both the European Union and the United States.

Chile and Peru in particular rely on China as an export market for their natural resources, as well as higher value-added products such as Chilean wine.