ECLAC: Region Torn Between Growth And Inflation

• The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has warned of the challenges to be faced by countries in the region as they move to reactivate investment and growth.
• In its latest annual report titled Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2022, ECLAC highlighted the trends and challenges of investing for a sustainable and inclusive recovery, in which it projects 2.7% average economic growth for the current year in a context of acute macro-economic restrictions that are hurting the region's economies.
• Mario Cimoli, Acting Executive Secretary of ECLAC noted that “in the context of multiple goals and growing restrictions, there must be a coordination of macroeconomic policies that would support the acceleration of growth, investment, and poverty and inequality reduction, while also addressing inflationary dynamics”.
• The report emphasised that Latin American and Caribbean countries are facing a complex economic outlook in 2022 and in the coming years. Lower economic growth is compounded by strong inflationary pressures, little dynamism in job creation, declining investment and growing social demands.
• This situation has translated into major challenges for macroeconomic policy, which must strike a balance between policies that would drive economic reactivation and policies aimed at controlling inflation and ensuring the sustainability of public finances.

(Source: Trinidad Express Newspapers)