Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presents the 2025 version of its annual report Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean amid global uncertainty and high geopolitical tension, which are worsening the three development traps facing the region: low capacity for growth; high inequality and low social mobility and cohesion; and weak institutional capacities and ineffective governance. Foreign direct investment (FDI) guided by productive development policies could address these challenges. The first chapter provides an overview of global and re…

Tax expenditures for environmental sustainability: international experiences in their identification and evaluation to enhance their governance

This report analyses tax expenditures aimed at promoting environmentally sustainable production activities and processes. Drawing on a global-scope database and a set of specific international experiences, it explores how these instruments are currently being used and evaluated. To this end, it presents a methodology for identifying and classifying the environmental tax expenditures applied in different parts of the world. It also provides an in-depth analysis of four country cases (Germany, Indonesia, Ireland and South Africa), with an emphasis on how they are evaluated. The document also add…

Demographic Observatory, 2025. Low fertility in Latin America and the Caribbean: emerging trends and dynamics

This 2025 edition of the Demographic Observatory offers an in-depth and updated exploration of historical and recent fertility trends in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a special focus on low fertility. Since 2015, the total fertility rate has remained below the replacement level, currently standing at 1.8 children per woman in Latin America and just 1.5 in the Caribbean. Drawing on various demographic sources and backed by the most recent scientific literature, this publication aims to provide information on current fertility levels in the countries and territories of the region, the sp…

Report on the activities of the Commission, 2024

ECLAC is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. Established in February 1948 and headquartered in Santiago, the Commission’s main mandate is to contribute to the sustainable development of Latin America and the Caribbean. In June  1951, the Commission established the ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico City, which serves the needs of the Central American countries, as well as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico, and in December 1966, the ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean was founded in Port of Spain, to serve the Caribbean subregion. In addit…

Provisional agenda. Thirteenth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Report on the activities of the Commission, 2024

ECLAC is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. Established in February 1948 and headquartered in Santiago, the Commission’s main mandate is to contribute to the sustainable development of Latin America and the Caribbean. In June  1951, the Commission established the ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico City, which serves the needs of the Central American countries, as well as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico, and in December 1966, the ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean was founded in Port of Spain, to serve the Caribbean subregion. In addit…

Annotated provisional agenda. Thirteenth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Provisional agenda. Sixty-seventh meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Persons with Disabilities: From Statistical Visibility to the Exercise of Rights. Accessible version

In the past four decades, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has fundamentally changed the way disability is understood. Traditional conceptions focused on individual deficiency have been replaced by a social and rights-based approach that holds the State and society responsible for eliminating the structural barriers —physical, social and cultural— that limit the participation of persons with disabilities in community life. A central aspect of this process is the availability of robust and comparable statistical information, which increases the visibility of persons wit…

Mapping sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean: sectoral and energy transition insights from sustainable bonds, 2014–2024

This study examines the role of green, social, sustainable, and sustainability-linked (GSSS) bonds in financing the energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It combines a descriptive assessment of sectoral bond issuance patterns from 2014 to 2024 with an econometric exercise focusing on the region’s top five issuers. The results indicate that GSSS bonds have contributed to the expansion of renewable energy capacity but have not yet produced a structural shift in the overall energy mix. These findings underscore both the opportunities and limitations of sustainable finance, h…

Perceptions of Governability and Governance in Latin America

This edition of ECLAC Statistical Briefings presents an overview of public perceptions and opinions regarding multiple dimensions of governability and governance in 18 countries of Latin America. The information spans a period of between two and three decades ending as recently as 2023, depending on the information available. The overview is based on certain dimensions of governance proposed by the Praia Group on Governance Statistics,1 complemented by perception indicators that can be used to approximate democratic governability. Governance and democratic governability are so closely linked t…

Economic impacts of population ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges and opportunities

This document analyses the economic implications of rapid population ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting both the challenges it poses for economic growth, the labour market, and the sustainability of social policies, as well as the opportunities it presents to boost various economic sectors in the region. Based on demographic and economic data, the ongoing structural transformation is examined, with particular emphasis on the increase in the population aged 65 and over. The study reviews the conceptual approaches that enable an understanding of the various dimensions of age…

United States economic outlook: evolving trends in the ownership of United States federal debt

This special issue of the United States economic outlook examines the trends in the ownership composition of United States federal debt holders, focusing on the balance between domestic and foreign investors and its implications for fiscal policy, financial stability and Latin America and the Caribbean. It provides updated data through mid-2025 on the structure of Treasury holdings, highlighting both the region’s participation as holders of United States debt and the strategies adopted by Latin American and Caribbean countries. The publication builds on two earlier reports by the ECLAC office …

Persons with Disabilities: From Statistical Visibility to the Exercise of Rights

In the past four decades, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has fundamentally changed the way disability is understood. Traditional conceptions focused on individual deficiency have been replaced by a social and rights-based approach that holds the State and society responsible for eliminating the structural barriers —physical, social and cultural— that limit the participation of persons with disabilities in community life. A central aspect of this process is the availability of robust and comparable statistical information, which increases the visibility of persons wit…

Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025: how to escape the trap of low capacity for growth. Executive summary

Latin America and the Caribbean is caught in a trap of low capacity for growth, largely because productivity has stagnated and even declined over the past decade. Escaping this trap requires a profound productive transformation, and the way to achieve this is to scale up and improve productive development policies following the new vision that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has been advocating. The Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025 addresses four themes that were selected for their strategic importance and …

Technical, operational, political and prospective (TOPP) institutional capabilities for managing transformations: underpinnings of a new paradigm

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has identified three structural traps that hinder development in the region: one of low capacity for growth and transformation, another of high inequality, low social mobility and weak social cohesion, and a third of low institutional capacity and ineffective governance. This third trap is particularly important for the analysis in this document, as it limits the effectiveness and continuity of public policies and reduces the scope for adapting them in the face of change and uncertainty. The document posits that the critical …

United States economic outlook: 2024 year-in-review and first half of 2025

In 2024, the United States economy expanded 2.8%, led by consumer spending. Job creation slowed and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.1% in December. Inflation eased to 2.4% in September but closed the year at 2.9%, with the core consumer price index (CPI) at 3.2%. The Federal Reserve cut rates in September, November and December, lowering the federal funds target range to 4.25%–4.50%, while trade and fiscal deficits widened. In the first half of 2025, GDP growth averaged 1.4%, with a contraction of 0.3% in the first quarter and an uptick of 3.3% in the second. From January to July, the eco…

Financial sustainability, equity, and efficiency of educational investment as enabling requirements for educational transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean 2025

Resuming previous international and regional commitments, in January 2024 the Declaration of Santiago was approved at the Extraordinary Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO Santiago, 2024). In this, the SDG4 Regional Steering Committee was tasked with establishing an ad-hoc Working Group to develop a preliminary proposal on inclusive and effective financing to complement the Regional Reference Framework on public policies for educational reactivation, recovery and transformation. This Working Group is made up of ECLAC, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, IDB, CA…

Individual earnings differentials by education level in Brazil: the greater inequality of the informal sector

In Brazil, workforce composition by age-education groups and distribution between the formal and informal sectors changed from 1980 to 2010. We estimate whether these area-level compositions reduced earnings of the least-educated individuals further. Our main hypothesis is that earnings are lower for residents of areas with higher proportions of less-educated and informal sector workers. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions performed on census data are used to estimate variations in male urban workers’ individual earnings, including several individual- and area-level independent variables.…

Establishing a regional agenda for planning and public management: transforming the future of Latin America and the Caribbean