Savings in Latin America after the mid 1990s: determinants, constraints and policies

National savings and growth in Latin America have remained low in the 1990s and 2000s. The low level of national savings rates has forced Latin American countries to depend on foreign savings to finance investment and growth, which compounds the challenges for raising investment and growth prospects. This study extends the research on savings in three different dimensions: (1) in a time perspective, it extend the analysis on savings to the most recent years: we examine the period 1990-2003: (2) it examines the causality between savings, investment, and growth mostly uncovered in previous resea…

Economic growth in Latin America: the role of investment and other growth sources

This research produced evidence about the contribution of investment and other sources to the growth process of Latin America during 1960-2002, and provided answers to the questions listed above unless from an historical perspective. The combined growth accounting and regression analysis, and used data for the six largest Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. These countries produce nearly 90 per cent of Latin America's GDP. Alternative growth accounting methodologies were used to measure the contributions of the sources of growth to GDP gro…

Building an information society: a Latin American and Caribbean perspective

Abstract New technological options that permit the use of digital systems to create and disseminate information around the world are paving the way for new means of organizing society and economic production and are gradually giving rise to a meta-paradigm that has come to be referred to as the Information Society. Viewed from the perspective of developing countries, the question of how to employ this emerging paradigm to achieve broader development goals and to integrate them more fully into the global Information Society is an issue of the utmost importance on the development agenda…

International capital flows to Latin America

Summary Capital flows returned to the Latin American in the 1990s after nearly a decade-long of the so-called debt crisis that featured a negative transfer of resources. These new capital flows were closely related to the economic reform process in the region. On the one hand, the reforms were a source of attraction for foreign investors. On the other hand, they helped the reforms succeed by relieving the external constraint that depressed growth during the 1980s. Nevertheless, the new inflows also created problems. While average inflows in the 1990s were very similar to the amounts received b…

Productive development in open economies

Presentation The countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region have shown a keen and lasting interest in mechanisms of economic development and public policies for its promotion. This is a process in which ECLAC has been involved ever since it was founded over half a century ago. Today, the debate on these issues continues against the backdrop of a globalization process in which the remarkable dynamism of some dimensions -especially its economic, financial and cultural aspects- contrasts with the slow formation of an institutional network capable of coping with the increased interdepend…

The strategies of multinational companies in 1990s Argentina

In the 1990s,Argentina received large amounts of foreign direct investment and the participation of multinational companies in the country's economy increased significantly. As during the import substitution industrialization period, the basic goal of multinationals is still to exploit the domestic market.Two differences from that period can be observed, however:access to the Brazilian market allows for greater economies of scale and specialization,and increased competition in many tradable sectors is forcing subsidiaries to bring their operations closer to international best practice. Th…

Expertos reiteran importancia de la innovación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la cooperación público-privada para una recuperación verde, inclusiva y sostenible en la región

La innovación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la cooperación público-privada son esenciales para una recuperación verde, inclusiva y sostenible pospandemia del COVID-19, coincidieron hoy expertos reunidos en el Foro Empresarial para los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe 2022: Innovación y Cooperación Público-Privada para una Recuperación Inclusiva y Sostenible, quienes subrayaron la importancia de impulsar pactos sociales entre los gobiernos, la sociedad civil y el sector privado con miras a la implementación de la Agenda 2030 en la región. El evento, organizado po…

Economic Survey of the Caribbean 2011-2012: positive growth amidst lingering downside risks

The current survey provides an overview of the economic performance for 2011 and the outlook for 2012 of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, and of the eight member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), namely Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and Montserrat. The introduction summarizes the economic performance of the Caribbean in 2011 and the growth outcomes for 2012. Section A examines the current global economic difficulties and the challenges p…

Trade and investment promotion between Asia-Pacific and Latin America: present position and future prospects

Abstract This document provides an overview of trade relations between Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and explores the possibilities for expanding the modalities of economic relations between the two regions. The analysis covers 12 countries in Asia and Oceania and 11 members of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). Interregional cooperation in trade and investment has been on the agendas of countries in both regions for some time. It is often expressed that the present economic relations between the two regions do not reflect the potential for interregional trade and inve…

The development of services in the Caribbean

The services sector has grown significantly in most countries and in the world economy as a whole. This has been observed in the progression from primary to secondary and/or tertiary sector-led economic growth and development. Services contribute significantly to output, employment and exports. They account for about 80% of the United States output (GDP) and about 65% of GDP of the European Union. Developed countries are the largest service exporters accounting for over 70% of services traded in the late 1990s. Although developing countries account for a relatively smal…

Secretario Ejecutivo de la CEPAL se reunió con el Presidente de Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León

En el marco de su visita oficial al país, el Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, se reunió hoy en Ciudad de Guatemala con el Presidente de la República de Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León, encuentro en el que dialogaron sobre la agenda actual de cooperación entre el Gobierno y el organismo regional de las Naciones Unidas y exploraron áreas de colaboración para el desarrollo de esta nación centroamericana. La CEPAL ha enfatizado la importancia de que los países de América Latina y el Caribe dinamicen su crecimi…

O Secretário Executivo da CEPAL se reuniu com o Presidente da Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León

No contexto de sua visita oficial ao país, o Secretário Executivo da Comissão Econômica para a América Latina e o Caribe (CEPAL), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, se reuniu hoje na Cidade da Guatemala com o Presidente da República da Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León; nesse encontro dialogaram sobre a agenda atual de cooperação entre o governo e o organismo regional das Nações Unidas e exploraram áreas de colaboração para o desenvolvimento dessa nação centro-americana. A CEPAL enfatizou a importância de que os países da América Latina e do Caribe dinamizem seu crescimento e o tornem mais inclu…

ECLAC’s Executive Secretary Met with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León

In the framework of his official visit to the country, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, met today in Guatemala City with the President of the Republic of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo de León, where they discussed the current cooperation agenda between the Government and the United Nations regional organization and explored areas of collaboration for the Central American nation’s development. ECLAC has stressed the importance of Latin American and Caribbean countries invigorating their growth and making…

The United States and Latin America and the Caribbean: highlights of economy and trade

This publication is a contribution by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to the analysis of trade and investment relations between the United States of America and Latin America and the Caribbean, on the occasion of the visit of President Barack Obama to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador in March 2011. The early years of this new decade have brought good news for Latin America and the Caribbean. The region weathered the international crisis with unprecedented resilience and emerged from it sooner and more strongly than the developed economies. It grew by 6%…

The United States and Latin America and the Caribbean: highlights of economy and trade

Esta publicación es una contribución de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL); al análisis de las relaciones comerciales y de inversiones entre los Estados Unidos y América Latina y el Caribe, con motivo de la visita del Presidente Barack Obama al Brasil, Chile y El Salvador en marzo de 2011. Los primeros años de esta nueva década han sido portadores de buenas noticias para América Latina y el Caribe. La región ha demostrado una capacidad de recuperación sin precedentes frente a la crisis internacional, de la que ha salido antes y con más pujanza que las economías des…

Growth with stability: financing for development in the new international context

Foreword In contrast to its situation during the lost decade , in the 1990s the Latin American and Caribbean region regained its access to international capital markets. Its return to these markets, in combination with a commitment to achieving basic macroeconomic equilibria, was manifested in smaller fiscal deficits and lower inflation, but the region has recovered only part of the ground it had lost in terms of its pace of economic growth. Thus, the region's economies have not been growing fast enough to strengthen their labour markets or to reduce poverty significantly. …

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…

II Foro Iberoamericano de Ministras y Ministros de Trabajo sobre trabajo decente y educación

Visita del Vicepresidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Álvaro García Linera