It’s Time to Act for Latin America and the Caribbean. The region is facing negative growth this year, some countries are facing very difficult economic conditions and others are faced with low growth that will do little to improve living conditions. How did we get here? What does the future hold? The 2016 Latin American and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report argues urgent policy … [Read more...] about Time to Act: Macroeconomic Report 2016
Commodity Prices (Again): Permanent or Temporary Shocks?
I returned home recently from another excellent “di Tella Summer Camp”. It’s no longer in the summer, it was not held in the Universidad Torcuato di Tella and it’s now called the Workshop in International Economics and Finance but the event is still going strong; this was the 19th year! Our extremely hospitable hosts were the Central Bank of Colombia and in the “policy panel” … [Read more...] about Commodity Prices (Again): Permanent or Temporary Shocks?
MDBs: Constraining Times
By Myriam Escobar and Andrew Powell In July 2015, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) committed to extend more than $400 billion in financing to developing countries over the next three years for longer term development aims. They also agreed to work more closely with private and public sector partners to mobilize the … [Read more...] about MDBs: Constraining Times
Latin American and Caribbean Macro: Secular Stagflation or (Just) a Painful Transition?
What’s going on in Latin American and Caribbean economies? Growth keeps falling, but unlike the rest of the world, inflation keeps going up (see Figure 1). In this blog I outline two possible views. Policy choices—and what to expect in 2016 and beyond—may depend on the explanation.[1] Some argue that advanced economies have entered a phase of secular stagnation (See Larry … [Read more...] about Latin American and Caribbean Macro: Secular Stagflation or (Just) a Painful Transition?
The Geography of Development: IDB Annual Development Lecture
Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East are hiring human traffickers and mounting rickety rafts each year to find a better life in Europe. Others are making the long trek North across deserts and over fences to enter illegally into the United States. At the IDB’s Annual Development Lecture, Princeton Professor Esteban Rossi-Hansberg discussed how many … [Read more...] about The Geography of Development: IDB Annual Development Lecture