In the first quarter of 2017, the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.4%. Fixed investment was the main driver of growth, while inventories were a large drag. Consumer spending slowed significantly from its pace in previous quarters, but still accounted for about half of GDP growth in the first quarter.
· U.S. employers added a seasonally adjusted 1,079,000 jobs during the first six months of 2017, the weakest first-half performance since 2010, according to data the Labor Department.
· Productivity was flat in the first three months of the year. Slumping productivity gains have led to…
• The incoming U.S. administration will be inheriting a healthy economy. The job market is posting solid gains, home sales and house prices have largely recovered from the bust, and the stock market continues to hit new highs. The current expansion has passed seven years, making it the third longest ever.
• The U.S. economy has added private sector jobs for 80 months and in November added another 178,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.6%, its lowest level since 2007. Since its post-crisis nadir in early 2010 the economy has created 15.6 million jobs.
• Wage growth is running ahe…
1 Nov 2013, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This survey posits that improving global prospects especially in the United States and Europe will mean opportunities for positive growth in the Caribbean due to increasing exports and renewed inflows from foregin direct investment and remittances. It points out that the response of the Caribbean economies to the global crisis has been asymmetric with the goods1 producing economies doing better than the service producing economies with respect to growth and their public finances. On the latter issue the region faces severe challenges as debt to GDP ratios in some countries are in excess of 100…
The swift expansion of developing Asia is probably the most significant structural change in the world economy of the twenty-first century. Latin America, and in particular South America, have strongly benefited from developing Asia’s surge. China has become one of the region’s main trade partners. Despite their benefits, strengthened trans-Pacific economic relations have also become a cause for concern in Latin America, due to major imbalances of different kinds.
The purpose of this book is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to document the growing investment and trade relations between Latin …
The ICMS represents the most important source of revenue for the Brazilian states and one of the most important taxes in Brazil. Unlike other VATs in the world, the ICMS is not collected by the central government. The ICMS is collected by the states (the intermediate level of government), which are able to fix the internal rates; a situation that reflects the fiscal autonomy of the different levels of government in Brazil. Similarly, the direct and unconditional transfers of 25% of the ICMS collection to the municipalities (the local level) show the high degree of autonomy at the sub–national …
1 Jun 2008, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:27
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IntroductionNearly 20 years ago, ECLAC put forward a proposal for structural change and productivity growth with social equity. At the time, the countries of the region were emerging from the severe crisis of the 1980s, with all its associated difficulties in terms of internal stabilization and external adjustment, and heading into a decade of structural reform which heeded the call of the Washington Consensus. In the midst of perplexity and pessimism regarding the region's prospects, ECLAC espoused a view of the situation that ran counter to the orthodox line of thought that marked econo…
12 Mayo 2008, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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In the midst of broad global market turmoil and mounting fears of a recession in the U.S., emerging markets have shown strong growth and economic resilience. For the first time in recent history, the external meltdown has not sparked capital flight from Latin America. Quite the contrary, Latin American markets have been seen by investors as a safe haven from the supbprime woes afflicting the U.S. economyDespite showing significant resilience, Latin American debt spreads widened in the first quarter of 2008, and after reaching record lows in May 2007, they are now re-approaching pre-Asian crisi…
1 Mayo 2008, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:27
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IntroductionNearly 20 years ago, ECLAC put forward a proposal for structural change and productivity growth with social equity. At the time, the countries of the region were emerging from the severe crisis of the 1980s, with all its associated difficulties in terms of internal stabilization and external adjustment, and headed into a decade of structural reform which heeded the call of the Washington Consensus. In the midst of perplexity and pessimism regarding the region's prospects, ECLAC espoused a view of the situation that ran counter to the extremely orthodox line of thought that mar…
1 Ago 2005, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This paper deals with the ways in which the exchange rate regimes
of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico shaped the macroeconomic
performance of those countries over the period 1994-2003. The purpose of the analysis is to draw lessons for Latin American and other countries on whether and how the choice of the exchange rate regime can help sustained growth. As it is impossible to isolate the growth effect of the exchange rate regime in a comparative country study, the paper emphasises those macro variables that have been identified in the theoretical and empirical literature as important channels thro…
This paper provides an overview of the structure and performance of the Caribbean tourism sector. It evaluates the role of policies and strategies as they impact the growth and competitiveness of the sector. Although the paper is not definitive on the subject, it provides some initial work on aspects of the industry that are not the typical focus of research. These include industrial structure, evaluated in terms of size, concentration, economies of scale and scope, competition and market types, for example oligopoly. Further the paper, examines the concept of clusters as it applies to the in…
Introduction The social agenda is long-term in nature, in the sense that poverty alleviation along with a better distribution of income, wealth and opportunities are long-term goals. A sound macroeconomic policy, on the other hand, has to do largely with the consistent management of short-term policy instruments pursuing a sustainable and predictable pace for aggregate economic variables and major prices (wages, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates). In spite of the different arena and rationale in which they play, there are strong links between the two. First and most obvious,…
18 Mar 2024, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:25
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This overview examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2022 and comprises four chapters. The first chapter provides a comparative analysis across Caribbean economies of the main macroeconomic variables, namely GDP growth, monetary indicators, as well as fiscal and external accounts. The second chapter concludes, while the annex includes individual country briefs that give an overview of the economic situation for the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and a subregional assessment of the countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currenc…
17 Ene 2023, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This overview examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2021 and comprises four chapters. The first chapter provides a comparative analysis across Caribbean economies of the main macroeconomic variables, namely GDP growth, monetary indicators, as well as fiscal and external accounts. The second chapter concludes, while the annex includes individual country briefs that give an overview of the economic situation for the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and a subregional assessment of the countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currenc…
13 Mayo 2022, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This overview examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2020 and comprises four chapters. The first chapter provides a comparative analysis across Caribbean economies of the main macroeconomic variables, namely GDP growth, monetary indicators, as well as fiscal and external accounts. The second chapter looks at areas of focus in the Caribbean. The third chapter concludes, while the annex includes individual country briefs that give an overview of the economic situation for the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and a subregional assessment of the coun…
24 Jun 2020, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This overview examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2019 and comprises four chapters. The first chapter provides a comparative analysis across Caribbean economies of the main macroeconomic variables, namely GDP growth, monetary indicators, as well as fiscal and external accounts. The second chapter looks at areas of focus in the Caribbean. The third chapter concludes, while the annex includes individual country briefs that give an overview of the economic situation for the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and a subregional assessment of the coun…
9 Ene 2020, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:25
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This survey examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2018 and comprises six chapters. The first chapter gives an overview of global, regional and subregional economic performance as well as unemployment in the Caribbean. The second provides an analysis of governments in the subregion’s fiscal performance and debt burden. The third looks at monetary policy and variables. The fourth is focused external sector and its factors. The fifth chapter concludes, while the final chapter includes individual country briefs that give an overview of the economic situation for the Ba…
This paper describes the dimensions and activities of the asset management industry in the United States locating the industry in the global context. It also discusses the evolution of asset management strategies utilized by the industry, setting up the discussion of the potential risks associated with this set of strategies and identifies the potential risks to the industry and explore the overall risks they raise for the global financial system. Finally, it provides regulatory responses to deal with these potential problems and briefly summarizes some suggested modifications of regulations t…
16 Mayo 2019, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This paper analyses the role that Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have played in financing development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and what their role will be in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a context where multilateralism is severely questioned, donor countries are moving their resources away from middle-income countries, and MDBs' lending represents a decreasing share of total debt in the region, we show that there is room for MDBs to continue being relevant players.…
This document, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Washington Office, presents and analyzes the most recent developments (first quarter of 2018) concerning capital flows to Latin America and the Caribbean.
The main highlights are:
-In January 2018, issuers from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) placed their highest ever monthly volume of debt in international markets. First quarter debt issuance in international markets also broke a record.
-From January to May 2018, total LAC international debt issuance amounted to US$ 67 billion, 6% higher than…
1 Nov 2014, 00:00 - 14 Oct 2025, 17:30
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This paper analyzes Joan Robinson's growth model and then adapts it in order to provide an explanatory taxonomy of Growth Eras. The Growth Eras or Ages were for Robinson a way to provide logical connections between output growth, capital accumulation, the degree of thriftiness, the real wage and illustrate a catalogue of growth possibilities. This modified taxonomy follows the spirit of Robinson's work, but it takes different theoretical approaches. which imply that some of the classifications do not fit perfectly the ones here suggested.
Latin America has moved from a Golden Age in …