TAG: Economy
Largely thanks to the recovering prices of some key commodities, the region recorded a positive first quarter in 2018, with the IMF forecasting Latin America and the Caribbean’s GDP growth for the year to reach 2%. Currency volatility remains among the primary challenges, however, offsetting some gains. The economy is thus centre stage in countries headed to the polls this year, potentially ushering in a period of economic transformation in several of the region’s major players.
In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of humanity was living in urban areas. Perhaps the most remarkable observation about this trend is the speed at which it has happened: as recently as 1900 urban areas accounted for 13% of the global population. Towns and cities are seen as the crucibles of opportunity for many rural dwellers.
Decades of growth in trade and foreign investment have seen the economies around the world become more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. The production of goods and, increasingly, the provision of services have become fractured across borders as corporations create and integrate into regional and global value chains. These trends have been reinforced by the steady liberalisation of international trade and investment regimes, at the bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral levels. National economic specialisation in areas of comparative advantage, and regional economic and political integration, have proceeded in a single direction, broadly speaking, since the 1980s. On aggregate, advanced economies have benefitted from and have championed these developments, while emerging markets have become the main drivers of growth around the world.