Latin America’s Era of Milk and Honey
It seems that Latin America's popular left-wing nationalist governments have discovered that fiscal stability and reducing debt constitute the key to political autonomy and economic independence. But if the neo-liberal Washington Consensus has been forgotten, perhaps it wasn’t because its tenets were misguided, but because globalization offered an opportunity to realize them without having to suffer the humiliation of a shrinking economy.
Whenever signs of change appear in Latin America’s economies, people ask if the change will be transitory or permanent. Driven mainly by the almost insatiable appetites of China and India, a profound burst of growth has come to Latin America. Over the past five years, Chile’s GDP has been expanding 5% annually, Argentina’s by almost 9%, Venezuela’s by more than 10%, and the Andean Community’s by 6%. The continent’s aggregate growth, at 4.5%, is expected to lag behind the world average of 5% in 2007, but only because the largest countries, Mexico and Brazil, are growing more slowly.
Whenever signs of change appear in Latin America’s economies, people ask if the change will be transitory or permanent. Driven mainly by the almost insatiable appetites of China and India, a profound burst of growth has come to Latin America. Over the past five years, Chile’s GDP has been expanding 5% annually, Argentina’s by almost 9%, Venezuela’s by more than 10%, and the Andean Community’s by 6%. The continent’s aggregate growth, at 4.5%, is expected to lag behind the world average of 5% in 2007, but only because the largest countries, Mexico and Brazil, are growing more slowly.