Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2006-2007

ECLAC has been publishing the Economic Survey for 59 years now. The first edition of this report was drawn up under the Executive Secretary’s supervision at the behest of the Commission, which requested that an economic survey of Latin America be prepared. That document was the new Economic Commission’s first contribution to an understanding of the region’s development process. The Survey thus embodies the Commission’s fulfilment of one of the specific purposes for which it was created by undertaking or sponsoring the collection, evaluation and dissemination of … economic, technological and statistical information… on the region. In fact, the former Director of the Central Bank of Argentina, Raúl Prebisch, arrived in Santiago as a consultant to work on the 1948 edition of the Economic Survey. Ever since then, the Survey has served as a witness and as a leading actor in the economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean. This flagship publication of ECLAC, which Alberto Hirschman once described as the Latin American manifest is one of the most frequently quoted reports of its kind in the region. As the sixtieth anniversary of the Economic Survey for Latin America and the Caribbean approaches, it has been restructured with a view to making it even more useful for its readers. In a reformulation that harks back to the early editions of the Survey, from now on the analysis of the current economic situation that is a customary part of this publication will be supplemented by an additional section.