OK -but that's why I said "Latin America". The continent as a whole has been showing progress, and of course it's an economic zone.
I must admit that I have not run through the data to make a completely qualified statement, but I would guess that good performances between Latin America countries are somewhat correlated. So the general good performance of the continent explained some of the good performances of individual countries.

Also, while they did have to get the creditors off their necks, the whole of the last 10 years (and a bit) have been spent under a Lula presidency or that of her formet chief of cabinet. Whose inclinations are totally at odds with the EU elites.

So, it feels a bit rich to give the fiscal consolidation in the first year of his presidency credit for the entirety of the performance, and none to a move towards more left-wing policies and lower inequalities (not saying that there are no other factors). Especially since Argentina and Venezuela did quite decently over the period as well.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

Actually it is worth mentioning that Lula himself has never missed an opportunity to slam the IMF and IMF type policies whenever he has had the chance. I.e.:

Lula... urged Portuguese policymakers to reject any austerity measures.  "The IMF won't resolve Portugal's problems, like it didn't solve Brazil's" he told Portuguese reporters on Monday, making the point that accepting an EU-IMF bailout would results in stricter austerity measures which would hamper growth, according to The Washington Post.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake