The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) expects Latin America and the Caribbean to experience an economic recovery of 2,2% in 2015, almost 1% higher than lasts’ year economic recovery rate.

President of the IADB’s Executive Directory, Luis Alberto Moreno, pointed out in a report of the bank that, considering the global economic scenery, countries in Latin American and the Caribbean should give priority to reforms that ensure sustainable and inclusive growth, both in the mid and long term.

“The answer relies in the sources of internal order increase… There we have a major challenge: to enhance productivity. This is the element that explains our development delay when compared to other regions in the world”, said Moreno.

This years, the growth projection for Latin America and the Caribbean is higher than the 1,3% registered during 2014, which was the lowest growth rate for the region since the financial crisis.

In 2014 the IADB granted over 13 thousand million dollars to projects on institutional development (43%), infrastructure and environment (38%), social sectors (16%) and trade and integration (4%).

During that year regional private sectors received loans and guarantees for over 2.800 million dollars, a larger number than the amount received in 2013 (2.116 million dollars).

Moreno stated that the IADB has made advances in defining a proposal to consolidate its activities in the private sector and gain operative efficiency.

The proposal shall be delivered to the IADB’s Governors Assembly in March, when they gather in the Korean city of Busan.

According to Moreno, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean must face reforms, such as developing trade integration, modernising infrastructure and improving public services.

Furthermore, he recommended dealing with bottlenecks such as the large proportion of informal jobs in labour markets, the limited access to financial services, the education’s bad quality and the low levels of innovation in productive activities.

Moreno, former ambassador of Colombia in Washington and president of the IABD since 2015, stated that the region must also protect social advances accomplished, such as the poverty rate reduction to 27, 6% achieved last year.

He also pointed out the importance of countries controlling the evolution of their labour markets and social programs to protect the most vulnerable sectors of the population.

Source: noticieros.televisa.com