Due to historically low internal saving rates, access to external financing is very important to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), even more so in the context of the 2030 Agenda and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Public financing falls short of what is needed for this task and must be complemented with private flows, which in fact make up the bulk of the region’s external financing. The credit quality of the sovereigns in the region has an important role in determining how costly the access to private external financing can be.
This report examines the his…
21 Nov 2018, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:35
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Noticias
‘Positive Community, Positive Role Models’ is the theme of the event to celebrate two important initiatives, which are the International Men’s Day, and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, jointly organized by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the UN system and several civil society organisations. The event will take place at the Enterprise Government Primary School in Cunupia on 24 November 2018 from 12 noon to 5 pm. This event is free and open to the public. It will be a unique opportunity to highlight the important role that men and boys can and should p…
8 Oct 2018, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:35
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Publicación
This study was prepared under the United Nations Development Account project “Enhancing the Contribution of Preferential Trade Agreements to Inclusive and Equitable Trade”, implemented by the United Nations Regional Commissions for Asia (ESCAP), Africa (ECA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The project’s objective is to facilitate the negotiation of fair and equitable trade agreements that can contribute to a vision of development that combines growth with social inclusion.
The study evaluates the economic and social impacts resulting from the potential increase of commercial relat…
31 Ene 2018, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:24
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Publicación
This paper examines the genesis and evolution of debt and debt overhang in the Caribbean with individual case studies, to extract lessons and make broad recommendations with regard to appropriate mechanisms and policy measures that can be implemented to reduce the debt burden of the subregion. The econometric model utilized in the paper has shown that a one percent increase on debt to GDP ratio causes a 0.015decline in real GDP growth for the countries in the Caribbean panel, suggesting that debt has a pernicious effect on growth on Caribbean economies. What is even more worrisome was that Car…
1 Nov 2017, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:45
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Publicación
The U.S. economic expansion remains on track and it has entered its ninth year. October marked the 100th month of growth for the U.S. economy. In about two years the current economic expansion will be the longest on record.1 The unemployment rate sits at 4.1%, the lowest level since December 2000, suggesting the economy has reached, or nearly reached, full capacity.
In the third quarter, the U.S. economy achieved a milestone: the output gap closed. This is the first time that the output gap, or the difference between the actual GDP (based on data by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of …
1 Jun 2017, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:23
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Publicación
The importance of sound and accurate early estimates of economic activity is of utmost importance to national economic authorities at the time of the decision-making process, and to the various agents involved in the economic analysis and follow up of the short-term economic prospects. In this context, the availability of short-term forecasts for quarterly GDP growth rates becomes highly relevant. In Latin America and the Caribbean an increasing amount of countries is producing high frequency economic data, and there has been an increasing interest by national authorities to use this data to i…
1 Mayo 2017, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:23
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Publicación
The Preliminary Overview of the Economies of the Caribbean analyzes in its 2016-2017 edition the economic performance of the region throughout 2016, the international context and macroeconomic policies implemented by countries, while also providing an outlook for 2017. The Caribbean recorded economic growth of only 0.8 per cent in 2016 but growth is expected to rebound to 2.4 per cent in 2017. The poor performance observed in 2016 was primarily due to a 3.7 percent contraction in the goods producing economies, which were hard hit by the decline in commodity prices in general and hydrocarbons i…
During the course of this week, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) together with the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) will conduct a series of training workshops on disaster assessment in Peru. The joint workshop will focus on the “Evaluation of the Socio-economic Impact of Disasters in the Health, Water and Sanitation sectors” and takes place on 6-7 February in Lima, and 9-10 in Piura.
The workshops are part of WHO/PAHO’sefforts to finalise a step-by-step field guide on assessing disasters. The guide relies on the Damage an…
30 Oct 2016, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:28
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Publicación
The CELAC region could benefit from an increase in mutual cooperation with Korea on multiple development pillars, including innovation and SMEs’ internationalization. These two themes figure among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the period of 2016 to 2030 and are key topics on the development agendas of CELAC countries and Korea. The first theme, science, technology and innovation (STI), is at the heart of structural transformation and encourages the emergence of new sectors, production networks and businesses. The second theme, SME internationalization strategies, …
1 Jun 2015, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:45
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Publicación
Dynamic Asia has overtaken the European Union as Latin America and the Caribbean’s second largest export market, after the United States. However, the region’s exports to Asia remain concentrated in few commodities involving a small number of large firms. This book explores the present and future scope for the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in biregional trade and value chains and the measures that can be taken to make those chains more inclusive and sustainable. SMEs have a low direct presence in the region’s export flows and their participation in the supplier net…
1 Feb 2015, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:30
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Publicación
This study builds on the Corporate governance and development of capital markets in Latin America report published by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which looked at the regulatory framework related to the principles of corporate governance in the region and assessed its contribution to the development of capital markets. This book complements the previous study and is the result of a joint effort by CAF, the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) and ECLAC to identify the key elements of corporate governance …
26 Ene 2015, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:44
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Noticias
Poverty affected 28% of Latin America’s population in 2014, revealing that its decline has stalled at around that level since 2012, while indigence rose to 12.0% from 11.3% during the same two-year period in an overall context of economic deceleration, according to the projections from a study presented today by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.
The document Social Panorama of Latin America 2014 indicates that the poverty situation in the region remained stable between 2012 and 2013, when it affected 28.1% of the population. It is estimated…
Given the asymmetry in the levels of development and capacity which exist between the EU and
CARIFORUM States, the architects of the CARIFORUM-European Union (EU) Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA)1 anticipated the need for review and monitoring of the impacts of
implementation. Article 5 and other provisions in the Agreement therefore specifically mandate that
monitoring be undertaken to ensure that the Agreement benefits a wide cross-section of the population
in member countries.
The paper seeks to provide a preliminary assessment of the impact of the EPA on
CARIFORUM countries. In so doin…
1 Nov 2014, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:21
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Publicación
This paper reviews the current status of the international fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, highlighting the importance of its prevention for economic and financial stability in Latin America and the Caribbean. It synthesizes the recent history of international legislation and agreements with respect to the issues, and presents the framework of public and private sector actors engaged in combating these threats. It reviews Latin American and Caribbean countries’ compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (40 + 9) Recommendations, and analyzes the regio…
Previous studies about the relationship between the cyclical components of Mexico's
output and unemployment suggest that it closely resembles that found in the
economy of the United States of America. This would indicate that the dynamics
between output and labour markets in the two economies are rather similar. However,
these estimates are puzzling for they do not correspond to a characterization made
to Mexico's labour market. Using a methodology first proposed by Clark (1989),
we find that the correlation between the transitory components of output and
unemployment is much lower t…
1 Ago 2013, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:22
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Publicación
In the face of weak global growth in major export markets the Caribbean economies have underperformed. The situation is much more severe among service producers1 which have suffered the decline in tourist arrivals and offshore banking services. The goods producers have benefited from the commodity boom and have tended to show more robust growth. The expectations for 2013 are that growth will be positive in the region with the service producers growing at 1.5per cent and the goods producers at 3.6per cent. This performance will depend heavily on improved performances in the major export markets…
Using two standard cycle methodologies (Classical and Deviation Cycle) and a comprehensive sample of 83 countries worldwide, including all developing regions, we show that the Latin American and Caribbean cycle exhibits two distinctive features. First, and most importantly, its expansion performance is shorter and for the most par less imtense than that of the rest of the regions considered, and in particular than that of East Asia and the Pacific, East Asia and the Pacific's expansions last five years longer than those of LAC, and its output gain is 50% greater than that of LAC. Second,…
1 Jun 2013, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:45
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Publicación
Caribbean policymakers are faced with
special challenges from climate change and
these are related to the uncertainties
inherent in future climate projections and
the complex linkages among climate
change, physical and biological systems
and socioeconomic sectors. The impacts of climate
change threaten development in the Caribbean
and may well erode previous gains in development
as evidenced by the increased incidence of climate
migrants internationally. This brief which is based
on a recent study conducted by the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(LC/CAR/L.395)1 provides…
11 Abr 2013, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:23
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Nota informativa
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) held a high-level thematic debate on "Addressing Excessive Price Volatility in Food and Related Financial and Commodity Markets," under the auspices of the President of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.
The event was part of a UNGA resolution on excessive price volatility adopted on 14 February 2012, which called for policies to address long-term structural issues of the commodity economy and integrate commodity policies into wider development and poverty eradication strategies at all levels.
The resolution underscored the financial regula…
1 Mayo 2012, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 13:27
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Publicación
The versatility of electricity, which can be transformed into heat, light or mechanical movement, makes it a very valuable form of energy. It can be used to light a home, cook food or move machinery in productive processes. Access to electricity is thus crucial for human and economic development. In the 1980s and 1990s, Latin America and the Caribbean substantially reformed the electricity sector. During this process, most of the countries in the region privatized all or part of the sector, which historically had been in the hands of the state. Thus, private companies largely took charge of el…