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…
On Tuesday, September 26, 2017, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) headquarters in Port of Spain hosted an expert group meeting (EGM) which discussed the ECLAC study “A global value chain analysis of offshore medical universities in the Caribbean.”
The study takes a closer look at the Caribbean offshore medical university (OMU) cluster. It examines the contributions that the OMUs make to their host countries. Other factors affecting the competitiveness and long term viability of the OMU cluster in the Caribbean were discussed by experts from Barbados, G…
Meeting participants included representatives from the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Arts, and an artisan from Saint Lucia.
During the meeting, participants underscored the importance of creating avenues to allow artisans to have direct interaction with tourists, as well as the need to establish easier financing packages and the necessary infrastructure for artisans who are more business oriented.
These measures would help to strengthen linkages between the arts and touri…
The budgeting process is set to greatly improve in Barbados as a result of ECLAC Caribbean’s training for public finance managers on Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs), according to Mr. Seibert Frederick, Permanent Secretary in the Barbados Ministry of Economic Affairs. Speaking at the high-level briefing that concluded the training workshop, on 26 August 2016, Mr. Frederick emphasized the value and potential of the techniques imparted, in bolstering the efficiency of the budgeting exercise, and noted that the training would have definitely benefitted permanent secretaries.
The participan…
Senior policy makers from the ministries of finance, education, health and agriculture in three Caribbean states recently received a comprehensive introduction to the ECLAC Development Account project, “Strengthening the technical capacity of public finance managers in select Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”, from which their countries will benefit.
The project focuses on increasing the capacity of policy makers and finance managers to apply the methods and procedures for better monitoring and forecasting of public expenditure and revenue, and is expected to have a positi…
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 …
Twelve years into the 21st Century, Caribbean countries continue to face considerable challenges on their path towards sustainable development and the creation of a post-2015 agenda. These include redefining their niche in the global market place in line with significant shifts in global production systems and trade, recovering from burdensome fiscal deficits and coping with climate change and the negative effects of more frequent natural disasters. In some countries poverty levels are increasing after years of decline. Most have defined a vision for development into the next 20 years, but in …
This report presents the results of the second survey of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from Chile, carried out by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile (IEI), and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint center of Columbia Law School and The Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York. The survey, conducted in 2012, covers the period 2011 and was undertaken in the framework of the Emerging Markets Global Players (EMGP) project, an init…
Using the results of seven nationally and regionally representative household surveys, this study analyzes the impact of trade liberalization on wage inequality through a channel in which applied tariffs, owing to the preferential margin given under numerous preferential trade agreements, would affect industry wage premiums during the 1992-2006 period in Chile. I find the skill premiums for high-skilled workers there to have decreased, especially after 2000; this circumstance is unlike that seen in most other Latin American countries or during Chile's initial reform period. The results of…
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 …
This paper examines the impact of inflation and its variability for eight Caribbean countries; Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The paper goes beyond the standard approach to examine the variability of relative prices (VRP) within the context of a threshold effects framework, since it was recognized that whether inflation was low or very high was significant in determining its impact on an economy. The paper employed a panel threshold effects model to capture the non-linear nature of the relationship…
Between 2003 and 2008 Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) experienced its most remarkable expansionary period since the 1970s. Yet, LAC countries' productivity gaps widened during this period vis-à-vis industrialized countries (here represented by the United States' manufacturing sector) as revealed in CEPAL (2010). The paper splits up this process and examines the different outcomes observed at the national level for the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico during these boom years. It examines the composition of productivity divergence in terms of sec…
This paper addresses the issue of the availability of data on persons with disabilities in the Caribbean subregion. It was prepared as a background paper for the Subregional Meeting and Capacity-Development Training Workshop on Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Caribbean which was held in Port of Spain from 9 - 10 November 2010. It presents the findings of a survey conducted by ECLAC aimed at gaining insight on current practices of national statistical offices and other data collecting agencies with respect to the collection of natio…
The study of CzechInvest, the leading and most prestigious investment and business development agency in the Czech Republic, seeks to describe and analyze the principles underlying the promotion of investment, restructuring and innovation in a country that has undergone a fundamental transformation of its economic, social and political operations in the last 18 years. The country is and interesting example for countries facing the challenges of growing openness to globalized markets and the need to restructure their international exchange patterns and institutional arrangements. The report sh…
Financial integration among countries entails a series of well-known benefits. On the one hand, net inflows of external savings can complement national savings within an economy and therefore raise productive investment and income. On the other hand, capital mobility provides opportunities for portfolio diversification and risk sharing between countries and this may enable investors-both firms and households of particular countries- to achieve higher risk-adjusted rates of return. This in turn could encourage increases in savings and investment and therefore deliver faster rates of growth (Eic…
Job creation continues to be a priority in economic policy because the wellbeing of families depends on the quantity and quality of jobs available. In 2004-2008, Latin America recorded its highest economic growth in 40 years, which has had a positive impact on job creation, in contrast to the minimal improvements in both job numbers and quality posted during periods of slow economic growth. Economic growth is not, however, the only factor that shapes these two aspects of employment. The three pillars of the institutional framework for labour, namely, the regulations governing individual and co…
There is a longstanding tradition of analyzing trade and growth in economics, going back to the discipline's founders. But for Latin America, the debate on the significance of this relationship has had much more than academic relevance. It has been one of the central components of the different approaches to development that have shaped the region's economic history, the other (closely related) component being the roles of the State and of the market in economic development. In Latin America, the dominant understanding of the relationship between trade and growth has evolved radicall…
Over the last 35 years the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has assessed major disasters in the Latin American region. Based on those exercises, which that have been conducted in a systematic manner using an evolving but comparable methodology over the years1, there is now historical evidence of the economic consequences these events have on the region's economies. This evidence-based approach sheds light on the link between economic performance, development dynamics and how disasters, as external shocks, generate lingering…
This study examines the application of the flexicurity labour system in the Caribbean countries of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. The flexicurity system has its origins in Denmark and combines elements of labour market flexibility with social security for workers. After outlining the elements of the system, the study provides an overview of the labour market in the Caribbean and compares the performance of Denmark with the three Caribbean countries. The comparison shows that there is a much lower level of flexibility and security in the three Caribbean states than in Denmark. The d…