Over the past half decade few regions have confounded expectations as much as Latin America. Booming commodity prices, abundant liquidity in financial markets and the expansion of export markets have helped transform countries widely considered to be basket cases at the beginning of the decade into safe havens of economic stability marked by low inflation, declining debt and steady growth.

But developments in global markets this year suggest Latin America may be losing its lustre. Stock markets across the region have fallen faster than most of the rest of the world, with an average decline of nearly 16 per cent since the beginning of the year.