Most of Latin America has been in an economic slump for the past five years or more. While a few countries are making notable progress toward recovery and sustained expansion, only Colombia, of the region’s five largest economies (which include Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Venezuela) has been growing faster than two percent per annum. After some success early this decade in reducing Latin America’s legacy of income inequality, the gap between rich and poor has been increasing in some countries. Inflation, once a persistent threat across most of the region, has been brought under control in all but a few countries. The slowing of China’s rapid growth, the multiple challenges confronting the European Union, and the unpredictable policies of the United States have created an adverse global economy for much of the region. But most countries today, in varying degrees, are taking needed steps to reform and better manage their domestic economic policies in order to meet these international challenges.
The Dialogue’s event, featuring two highly respected economic analysts, will review these and other factors shaping and constraining Latin American’s economic prospects and discuss what Latin America is doing to overcome its longer-term problems of boom and bust and low growth and productivity.
Follow this event on Twitter at #LatAmEconomy and @The_Dialogue.
Speakers:
Joyce Chang
Chair of Global Research, J.P. Morgan
Santiago Levy
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Moderator:
Michael Shifter
President, Inter-American Dialogue (@MichaelShifter)
