Deeper Integration Vital for Growth in Latin America and the … – World Bank Group

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2017 A deeper economic integration among Latin American and Caribbean countries will make the region more competitive in international markets and boost long-term growth, according to a new World Bank report.

Better Neighbors: Toward a Renewal of Economic Integration in Latin America, argues that a renewed integration strategy that takes advantage of the complementarities between regional and global economic integration can contribute to growth with stability. This is particularly relevant for a region that is just coming out of two years of recession.

In todays world, regional economic integration offers a way forward to reactivate the economic growth needed for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity, said Jorge Familiar, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean. A more robust intraregional integration will make us more competitive in the global arena. Effective integration will require investment in infrastructure, connectivity and logistics, which will offer an additional boost in economic growth.

Since the 1960s, the region has been pursuing regional integration, with efforts intensifying since the mid-1990s. Still, intraregional exports in Latin America remain at a persistent 20 percent of total exports, much less than the 60 and 50 percent intraregional exports in the European Union and East Asia Pacific, respectively.

Therefore, the report proposes an open regionalism that reaps unexploited synergies between regional and global economic integration, on the premise that pro-growth integration with the world cannot be achieved without first strengthening the regions own neighborhood. To do so, the report lays out a five-pronged interdependent strategy:

The report concludes that in order to be successful, the region will need to design and implement these smart but complex policies to enhance intraregional economic integration while also lowering barriers to international trade with the rest of the world. While it will not be simple, the report argues that the time is ripe to bring these efforts to the forefront.

---

Learn more about the work of the World Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean: http://www.worldbank.org/lac

Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldbank

Be updated via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BancoMundialLAC

For our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/BancoMundialLAC

Read this article:

Deeper Integration Vital for Growth in Latin America and the ... - World Bank Group