Latin America may be a thorn in Bush's side but, overall, it's not doing too bad
(see 4/19 post...)
on 21 april, the imf issued its Spring 2006 Update of the Regional Outlook for latin america... some interesting highlights...
for comparison purposes, growth in the u.s. should remain close to 3 1/2 percent in 2006...
i've followed the price control discussion in argentina with no small degree of bemusement... even with my seriously limited ability to grasp macroeconomics, i am still smart enough to recognize a discredited measure when i see one... but, the imf has another, brighter perspective that's gone unmentioned in the local news that i follow...
the year is only 3 1/2 months gone... it'll be interesting to watch future developments as they unfold... Submit To Propeller
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on 21 april, the imf issued its Spring 2006 Update of the Regional Outlook for latin america... some interesting highlights...
[T]his region has performed even better than we anticipated last fall—expanding at a robust rate of 4 1/4 percent during 2005...
for comparison purposes, growth in the u.s. should remain close to 3 1/2 percent in 2006...
this isn't to say that there aren't a few potholes in the road...
- [S]trong commodity and raw material export prices and terms-of-trade gains, which have helped secure a third consecutive year of current account surpluses.
- On average, headline inflation fell to an average of 6 1/4 percent last year, despite (in many cases) the pass-through of high world oil prices...
- At the turn of the year, Brazil and Argentina repaid all outstanding obligations to the IMF (US$15.5 billion and US$9.6 billion, respectively) and, in March, Uruguay advanced US$625 million of its 2006 payments.
- [U]nemployment [is] now down at or close to the single-digit range in many countries...
[T]wo countries in the region have inflation in the double digit range: Argentina and Venezuela. And both countries have what seems to be a policy of some kind of price controls.
i've followed the price control discussion in argentina with no small degree of bemusement... even with my seriously limited ability to grasp macroeconomics, i am still smart enough to recognize a discredited measure when i see one... but, the imf has another, brighter perspective that's gone unmentioned in the local news that i follow...
[I]n Argentina the government's efforts to retain significant high primary fiscal surpluses, much higher than we had discussed a couple of years ago. I think they remain convinced and committed to retaining significant fiscal surpluses, as part of their anti-inflation policies.
the year is only 3 1/2 months gone... it'll be interesting to watch future developments as they unfold... Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
4/23/2006
