Balance Preliminar de la Economía de América Latina y el Caribe 1997

Despite the instability in international financial markets in recent months and the turbulence it has created in Latin American stock markets, in 1997 the region’s economies put out their best performance in a quarter of a century, combining an average growth rate of 5.3% (compared to 3.20% during the period 1991-1996) with an average rate of inflation of under 11 %. Although the current account deficit has widened considerably, from US$ 35 billion in 1996 to US$ 60 billion in 1997 (3% of GDP), inflows of foreign capital will more than cover the gap; they are expected to reach unprecedented levels. totalling at least $73 billion. Of that amount, nearly two thirds will be in the form of direct investment. The employment situation has improved slightly, although the percentage of the population unemployed continues to be very high in a number of countries. High unemployment rates are undermining efforts to move ahead more rapidly in reducing the extent of poverty -a serious problem in an otherwise generally positive scenario.