Global Finance From A Latin American Viewpoint

The Inter-American Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre created the International Forum on Latin American Perspectives as an annual meeting place of ideas and strategies from Latin America and from the OECD region. The tenth meeting of ...

The Inter-American Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre created the International Forum on Latin American Perspectives as an annual meeting place of ideas and strategies from Latin America and from the OECD region. The tenth meeting of ...

A Brookings Institution Press and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) publication Access to finance is critical in setting the course for development in emerging market economies. In this innovative study, which provides the first book-length analysis of the Latin American financial sector, Barbara Stallings and Rogerio Studart examine the dramatic changes resulting from financial liberalization in the region. The authors begin by discussing the critical transformations taking place in Latin America since 1990—a period marked by acceleration toward a new open, market-oriented development model, and away from a semi-closed model relying heavily on the state. Stallings and Studart examine changes in ownership of the financial sector and government regulation of banking, evaluate the role of capital markets as a source of finance, and compare Latin America's financial sector to that of East Asia. The second section of the book features case studies that demonstrate the changes occurring in Chile, Mexico, and Brazil with particular reference to finance for investment and access to credit. The authors conclude with a set of policy recommendations aimed at strengthening Latin American banks and capital markets so that they can play a greater role in supporting economic development.

Why has the economy of Latin America responded more positively than Asia, Europe or the United States after being hit by the recent global financial crisis? Three years after the worst of the crisis, Latin America's GDP is 25 percent higher than its precrisis level. José De Gregorio, Governor of the Central Bank of Chile from 2007 to 2011, tells the story of how Latin America has responded to the crisis with a perspective that only an insider can have. De Gregorio focuses on the seven largest economies of the region, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela (90 percent of the region's output). He argues that Latin America was resilient because of good macroeconomic policies, strong financial systems, and "a bit of luck."

During the 1980s and 1990s, financial sectors were the Achilles heel of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since then, these sectors have grown and deepened, becoming more integrated and competitive, with new actors, markets, and instruments springing up and financial inclusion broadening. To crown these achievements, the region s financial systems were left largely unscathed by the global financial crisis of 2008 09. Now that the successes of LAC s macrofinancial stability are widely recognized and tested, it is high time for an in-depth stocktaking of what remains to be done. Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Road Ahead provides both a stocktaking and a forward-looking assessment of the region s financial development. Rather than going into detail about sector-specific issues, the report focuses on the main architectural issues, overall perspectives, and interconnections. The report s value added thus hinges on its holistic view of the development process, its broad coverage of the financial services industry beyond banking, its emphasis on benchmarking, its systemic perspective, and its explicit effort to incorporate the lessons from the recent global financial crisis. Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Road Ahead builds on and complements several overview studies on financial development in both LAC countries and the developing world that were published in the past decade. It will be of interest to policy makers and financial analysts interested in improving the financial sector in the LAC region.

This reissue, initially published in 1984, examines the evolution of international financial flows to Latin America since 1945, along with their implications for National Development . The book describes how, in each of the first three decades since the war, a new agency emerged (foreign investors in the 1950s, official aid agencies in the 1960s and multinational banks in the 1970s) which was willing to play a dynamic role in generating new financial flows to the region. The lack of such an agent in the 1980s, combined with a reluctance on the part of former investors to maintain their level of assistance culminated in an economic debt crisis in Latin America which this work seeks to address, asking the crucial question: what measures should be taken – both nationally and internationally – to deal with this critical issue , in a way that will both encourage Latin American Development and avoid a major international financial crisis?

This book synthesizes the results of a comprehensive analysis of the status, prospects, and challenges of sustainable financial development in Latin America, as well as the lessons for developed and developing countries.