“Failure of national governance”, “unemployment” and “fiscal crises” – all prominently cited as risks by Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) business executives. As in previous years, the Global Risks Report 2017 uses data from the Executive Opinion Survey, which asks LAC executives about the risks of highest concern for doing business. The findings shed some light on the anxieties of business people throughout the region and how these differ from those of their counterparts in other parts of the world.
While key concerns across the globe include cybersecurity and data fraud, terrorist attacks and large-scale involuntary migration, executives in LAC were more concerned with fundamental political and economic structural risks. A major theme that emerged among business leaders in the region was a lack of confidence in the state, both in terms of the legal frameworks within which business might operate and the economic and social management of a country.