From hard-peg to hard landing?: recent experiences of Argentina and Ecuador

Abstract Based on the analysis of the Argentinean currency board and the full dollarization scheme in Ecuador this paper argues that an intermediate exchange rate regime (compared to free floating or hard peg) will be a better option for countries subject to external financial shocks and a worldwide export and import structure. It shows that the Argentine convertibility system was successful as an anti-inflationary program. However, the reduction in the inflation rate has been accompanied by a dramatic change in relative prices of tradable and non tradable goods and services, which ha…

Income distribution in Argentina, 1974-2000

Over the last quarter-century, the distribution of income in Argentina has deteriorated steadily. This article utilizes microsimulation analysis to decompose the impact that labour changes have had on the distribution of family income. In the 1970s, the deterioration was due to real reduction and relative dispersion of wages; in the1980s, it was linked to growing unemployment resulting from successive crises; in the1990s, under the new economic order, the deterioration continued as a result of the unemployment generated by the restructuring of production and the increase in labour force partic…

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2002

This document contains an analysis of and statistics on the economic performance of the region as a whole and of individual Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2002. It shows a 0.5% decline in regional economic activity, leading to a fall in per capita gross domestic product below 1997 levels and thus completing half a lost decade for the region as a whole. South American economies, particularly Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela, weighed heavily in the regional aggregate, but the lack of dynamism was widespread throughout the region. An adverse external environment was key …

United States interest rates, Latin American debt and financial contagion

This article analyses the way in which Latin American bond spreads were affected by the changes in United States interest rates in the second half of the 1990s. Empirical analysis shows that, contrary to theory, in this period the spreads of emerging market bonds and United States interest rates moved in opposite directions; that there was financial contagion; that contraction of liquidity and financial contagion can offset the effects of those interest rates on the spreads of emerging market bonds at times of economic and financial turbulence and thus become the most important factors in the …

Social Panorama of Latin America 2001-2002

The year 1997 marked the end of a cycle of growth in Latin America that enabled a number of countries to make significant strides in reducing poverty. The turning point in this process was the Asian crisis, which ushered in a five-year stretch of slower economic growth,higher unemployment and unchanging (or, in many cases, rising) poverty indices in the region. It may be said, without exaggeration, that the people of Latin America have once again been frustrated and discouraged by the adverse consequences of this lost half-decade. This edition of the Social Panorama presents the argument, howe…

Trade, resources and inequality in Latin America

This article uses international databases to empirically estimate the links between inequality and trade. It looks first at the links between trade openness, income distribution and relative factor abundance. Next, it uses the results obtained to analyse the changing relative resource endowment of Latin America and its distributive consequences. The main conclusion is that, behind the persistent high level of inequality in the region, substantive changes have been taking place. The Latin American pattern of relative resource abundance has changed with the inroads made by Asia, China and Russia…

CEPAL Review no.78

Expenditures, investment and financing for sustainable development in Trinidad and Tobago

Main Statistical Points GEF funding has proceeded in recent years primarily via the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP. It has provided approximately US$5m in funding for projects totaling approximately US$18m in value (therefore over 70% locally cofinanced).   Total public expenditure (capital and recurrent) on environmental projects (as identified herein) has ranged between 0.15% to 0.21% of GDP over the period or approximately between US$2 to US$3 per capital. …

Expenditures, investment and financing for sustainable development in Brazil

The objective of this study is to examine the evolution and characteristics of the financing for the nvironment in Brazil, in order to identify the advances and retreats after the Rio 92 Conference. Brazil has a very decentralized administration, composed of three independent levels of public administration: the federal government, 27 state governments, and more than 5000 municipios, or municipalities; all of them with specific environmental institutions. However, at the time of the completion of this report, there were no indicator…

The production of statistical data and information in the Caribbean: proposals for increasing efficiency in this sphere

Introduction Much has been written on the difficulty of obtaining statistical data on the Caribbean. Many commentators have examined the problem from several angles, including the organization of the statistical offices, the issue of training and the issue of budgetary resources that impose an upper limit to the size of staff that can be employed at the statistical office. While there is much to say about any of the issues given as examples of the facets of the problem, in the final analysis the management of limited statistical resources is at the core of the data poverty. Th…

Access to Latin American and Caribbean exports in the U.S. market 2001-2002

Access to Latin American and Caribbean Exports in the United States market, 2001-2002 is the seventh annual report released by the ECLAC Washington Office, updating information contained in previous reports. Its aim is to compile and make available information on trade inhibiting measures that Latin American and Caribbean exports encounter in the United States market. This report needs to be placed in the context of a trade relationship between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean, which has grown strongly over the years to the benefit of both economies. Moreover, it must be…

Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2000-2001

The 2000-2001 edition of Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy is divided into three sections. The first section (chapters I,II and III) examines the international situation and international trade activity in Latin America and the Caribbean. It describes the main trends in the international economy and their impact on the economies of the region and looks at the international trade activity of the different countries in 2000 and the first half of 2001. Chapter III discusses some of the structural links of Latin America and the Caribbean with the world economy. The second sectio…

Food Security Issues for Caribbean

Reforms and growth in Latin America

This article analyses the effects of the economic reforms applied by Latin American countries during the second half of the 1980s and after.In order to include the reform indices among the elements determining the per capita gross domestic product,in accordance with neoclassical growth models,the authors start by analysing the institutional nature of these reforms.The econometric analysis,carried out for a set of 17 Latin American countries for the 1970- 1995 period,revealed that the five reform areas studied significantly affected GDP.On the basis of empirical analysis,it can be concluded tha…

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2001-2002

The present edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, annual publication that appears every year since 1948, consists of three parts and one statistical appendix. The first part of the Survey covers the main aspects of the regional economy from a sectorial and thematic perspective. Chapter 1 deals with the situation of the first half of 2002 and the prospects for the year as a whole, and it is a corrected version of what was previously published separately with the title 2002: Current Conditions and Outlook. In the second chapter the evolution of the regional economy i…

Regional integration and the issue of choosing an appropriate exchange-rate regime in Latin America

Abstract Behind the discussion on optimal exchange-rate regimes lies the need to achieve external and internal equilibrium, and thus create an appropriate macroeconomic climate for sustained growth and development. The optimality and feasibility of exchange-rate regimes in individual Latin American and Caribbean countries must take into consideration several parameters linked to microeconomics, open macroeconomics, and political economy aspects. More recently, the discussion has incorporated the regional dimension and the possibility of joining monetary unions to the set of feasible national s…

CEPAL Review no.77

Current conditions and outlook: Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2002

Foreword This publication provides an assessment of the region's economic performance and economic trends during the first half of 2002 and of its prospects for the remainder of the year within the context of the previous year's performance. An analysis is presented of the main aspects of the regional economy -its external sector, levels of economic activity, inflation, employment, saving and investment, and macroeconomic policy-, accompanied by a statistical appendix containing 13 tables with data series through 2001. The document, which is being published simultaneously in…

Foreign investment in Mexico after economic reform

Introduction Since the mid-1980s the Mexican economy has undergone a process of deep economic reform designed to shift away from the more inward-oriented development model that Mexico had followed until then. The main purpose of these reforms was to privilege market mechanisms in economic activities, which meant reducing the state's direct and indirect involvement in the economy. Some of these economic reforms have been completed, some are still in process, and still others - those that encountered opposition - have not yet, or have only just, been implemented. Economic liberalization had…

The sustainability of development in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges and opportunities

Summary The original aim of this study was to serve as an input for the Regional Preparatory Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 23 and 24 October 2001. This document was produced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In preparing the study, national preparatory activities and inputs from subregional meetings were taken int…