The U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean is predicting that Latin American countries’ economic growth rate for this year may be lower than the projected four-point-four percent.

The commission previously cut its projection for the economic growth rate of the region from four-point-seven percent in July to four-point-four percent in October.

Latin American economies grew a mere one-point-nine percent in 2009 following the 2008 global financial crisis. The region experienced rapid economic growth of five-percent-nine percent in 2010, but a slowdown in the Chinese economy is having negative effects on the Central and Southern American countries.