In 2023, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and China continued to deepen their economic relations, with a record number of presidential visits and continued strength in Chinese investment and infrastructure in LAC. 

These are among the findings of the 2024 edition of the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Economic Bulletin, published by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center) and providing a synthesis of the latest trends in the China-LAC economic relationship. 

In particular, 2023 saw LAC presidents articulate their priorities for the future of the relationship, with a particular focus on infrastructure, commodity exports and renewable energy supply chains. These priorities appear to be borne out by the trends in the economic relationship, which buoyed three sectors in particular: beef exports, transition mineral extraction and rail infrastructure. 

China-LAC: Setting the economic policy agenda

A record eight LAC presidents traveled to China in 2023, after just one such visit in 2022 and none in 2020 or 2021. As Figure 1 shows, this included presidents from countries that have visited China frequently, such as Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, those that have visited only once or twice in the past such as Colombia, Guyana and Uruguay, as well as Honduras, which only recently established diplomatic relations with Beijing.