• Login
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
  • Home
  • News
    • General
    • Political
  • Economy
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Banking & Finance
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Markets
    • Maritime
    • Real Estate
    • Tourism
    • Transport
  • Technology
    • Telecom
    • Cyber-security
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Tech-guide
    • Social Media
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Reports
    • Banking/Finance
    • Insurance
    • Budgets
    • GDP
    • Inflation
    • Central Bank
    • Sec/Gse
  • Lifestyle
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

Investments That Pay Off: Latin America’s response to recent global shocks

2 years ago
in Business, Features, highlights, Home, home-news, latest News
4 min read
0 0
0
37
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

RelatedPosts

Chamber of Agribusiness Calls for Sector-Wide Price Cuts and Urgent Government Support to Curb Food Crisis

The Perils of Market Interventionism: When Political Pressures Threatens Ghana’s Economic Gains – The Way Forward

GAB Projects Drop in Lending Rates Starting August 6 Following BoG’s 300bps Policy Rate Cut

Investments That Pay Off: Latin America’s response to recent global shocks

“This time it wasn’t us,” Guillermo Ortiz, then governor of Mexico’s central bank, said at the 2008 start of the global financial crisis.

He spoke for emerging economies, accustomed to being at the epicenter of macroeconomic problems. Today, the sentiment holds even more true: most of Latin America not only remained resilient amid significant shocks over the past three years—including the pandemic, surging global inflation, trade tensions between large economies, and tighter global financial conditions—but they also responded appropriately from the perspective of their macroeconomic policies.

While large challenges persist, such as low economic growth and high debt levels, tackling them becomes more achievable when more countries in the region have robust and effective macroeconomic frameworks.

The IMF is here to assist, working with policymakers to sustain the momentum from their strong response to recent challenges. Our shared objective should be to foster economic growth that benefits all segments of society. This entails harnessing energy transition opportunities, further opening economies to global trade benefits, and strengthening existing safety nets to better protect citizens, among other priorities.

First to act

Like many others, Latin American countries incurred significant government budget deficits in 2020, reflecting a combination of increased spending and diminished revenues. These were exceptional times that needed a complementary response from loose monetary policy. It was critical to protect lives and livelihoods.

But unlike many of their global counterparts, most countries in the region withdrew the large fiscal expansion deployed during the pandemic in a timely manner.

The primary fiscal deficit for the five major economies with inflation targeting and floating exchange rates—Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, known as LA5—rose by 6 percentage points of GDP in 2020, while the wider Latin American region saw an increase of 4 percentage points. That compares with a rise of 7 percentage points in advanced economies and just over 5 percentage points in emerging market economies in other regions.

chart showing cumulative changes to primary balances of various economies

The most notable divergence emerged in 2021 and 2022. While the LA5 countries, and indeed almost the entire region, completely withdrew this fiscal stimulus, achieving primary results surpassing pre-pandemic levels, advanced countries and other emerging economies maintained a significant part of the expansion, around 3 percentage points. This early withdrawal not only contributed to reducing public debt-to-GDP ratios but also helped contain inflation.

In fact, faced with the biggest inflationary surge since the adoption of inflation targeting, countries in the region acted with exceptional swiftness, raising interest rates earlier and to higher levels than other countries. Now, inflation is decreasing, currencies have appreciated in recent months, and the current discussion is about the pace of future interest rate cuts, which a few countries already started. This stands in contrast to other regions where deliberations still revolve around new hikes.

It’s also remarkable how medium-term inflation expectations were little changed in Latin America, underscoring the credibility of their inflation target frameworks, a phenomenon observed in several countries across the world. Moreover, the region did not suffer any significant financial stress, despite sharp exchange rate movements. This success can be attributed to improved financial regulation and supervision in the past two decades, significantly less fear of letting the exchange rate float, as well as the private sector’s ability to mitigate and manage risks from exchange rate exposure.

chart of ex-ante monetary policy rates of various economies

While acknowledging the differences among countries and the potential to achieve even greater macroeconomic stability, the transformative shift from a time when the region was beset by economic problems to its present state is both striking and encouraging.

The right policy components

This encompassing macroeconomic policy framework, which includes inflation targeting, central bank independence, exchange rate flexibility, fiscal rules aimed at ensuring fiscal sustainability while allowing deviations in extraordinary cases, and international financial integration, has expanded beyond the LA5 countries. Countries like Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and Costa Rica have increasingly adopted this framework, with very positive results. We shouldn’t be surprised; this mirrors the approach to macroeconomics in successful small, open, advanced countries like New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, or Canada.

This approach to shaping macroeconomic policy is also potentially friendlier to the rest of the world than the alternatives, as it doesn’t inherently demand the accumulation of excessive international reserves and facilitates cross-country capital movements. However, there will always be unforeseen shocks that are usually more difficult for a developing region to absorb. That is why it’s necessary to remain vigilant and build or rebuild buffers, including through reserves or additional insurance mechanisms like the IMF’s precautionary credit lines.

Tackling remaining challenges

Of course, the recent macroeconomic management success does not mean an end to major challenges and difficulties.

Several economies are grappling with excessive public debt, and this challenge extends even to robust economies. This issue was present prior to the pandemic, with a worrisome upward trajectory, underscoring the need for continued efforts to ensure sustainability. The task becomes even more demanding amid less favorable external conditions.

More worrisome, other countries are confronted with significant risks arising from unsustainable macroeconomic policies. Addressing them is far from simple, especially when short-termism dominates.

Nevertheless, there are several countries that have had success in rebuilding macroeconomic frameworks, some of which received IMF support.

There are also deeper challenges demanding urgent attention in the entire region, including:

  • Enhancing long-term growth potential and overcoming stagnating productivity;
  • improving the persistently uneven distribution of income and power among citizens;
  • contributing to climate change mitigation and adapting to its effects;
  • curbing the proliferation of crime and reducing insecurity, a concern consistently at the top of citizen surveys; and
  • adapting to automation, robotization, and digitalization.

Tackling these challenges starts with an orderly macroeconomic foundation. Given what several countries in the region have been able to achieve in recent years, we should have a renewed sense of hope and optimism for the future.

Tags: global shocksInvestments That Pay Off: Latin America’s response to recent global shocksLatin America
No Result
View All Result

Highlights

Local Bourse Rallies Strongly as GSE-CI Hits Near 7,000 Mark

Treasury Exceeds Auction Target of GHS 3.86 Billion Amid Tightening Yields

BoG Raises GHS 15.38 Billion via 56-Day Bills to Reinforce Tight Monetary Policy Stance

Passage of Competition Law Key to Tackling DSTV’s Market Dominance – CUTS International

Why Are Interest Rates Still High? The MPR vs Market Rates Debate

Climate Change Is Making Africa’s Debt Burden Worse – New Debt Contracts Could Help

Trending

Agribusiness

Chamber of Agribusiness Calls for Sector-Wide Price Cuts and Urgent Government Support to Curb Food Crisis

August 4, 2025

Chamber of Agribusiness Calls for Sector-Wide Price Cuts and Urgent Government Support to Curb Food Crisis The...

The Perils of Market Interventionism: When Political Pressures Threatens Ghana’s Economic Gains – The Way Forward

August 4, 2025

GAB Projects Drop in Lending Rates Starting August 6 Following BoG’s 300bps Policy Rate Cut

August 4, 2025

Local Bourse Rallies Strongly as GSE-CI Hits Near 7,000 Mark

August 4, 2025

Treasury Exceeds Auction Target of GHS 3.86 Billion Amid Tightening Yields

August 4, 2025

Who we are?

NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World

NorvanReports is a unique data, business, and financial portal aimed at providing accurate, impartial reporting of business news on Ghana, Africa, and around the world from a truly independent reporting and analysis point of view.

© 2020 Norvanreports – credible news platform.
L: Hse #4 3rd Okle Link, Baatsonaa – Accra-Ghana T:+233-(0)26 451 1013 E: news@norvanreports.com info@norvanreports.com
All rights reserved we display professionalism at all stages of publications

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate
    • Maritime
    • Tourism
    • Transport
    • Banking & Finance
    • Trade
    • Markets
  • Economy
  • Reports
  • Technology
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Cyber-security
    • Social Media
    • Tech-guide
    • Telecom
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
NORVANREPORTS.COM | Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.