México

Across Latin America, countries
will soon join Mexico in celebrating
their 200th anniversaries of
independence. There are many
reasons for Latin America to feel proud of
how much it has achievedover the past two
centuries, including in recent years. But despite
its potential, the region is still underdeveloped
and profoundly unequal, with about
one-third of its people living in poverty.Latin America has long been a region of
paradox and contrasts: a land of prosperity
and poverty, of independence and dependence,
of stability and instability.
But things may be changing.Throwing off
its reputation for boom and bust, over the
past decade the Latin American region has
prospered. Faster and sustained output growth during much
of the 2000s was accompanied by bigimprovements in social
conditions. In addition, the region strengthened its economic
fundamentals and better prepared itself for economic
shocks—so the impact of the recent global crisis was in most
casesrelatively mild and short lived when compared with the
crushing economic problems during previous episodes of
global turbulence.
With the global crisis behind it, the region—endowed with
a wealth ofcommodities and now facing favorable external
conditions—has great economic opportunities and the
potential to become an increasingly important global player.
Three countries in theregion—Argentina,
Brazil, and Mexico—are members of the
Group of Twenty, which is playing an increasingly
prominent role in shaping the world
economy. The region can advance even more
by building on recentprogress to lock in economic
stability and with the determination to
tackle long-standing problems of low productivity
and high inequality.
Improved policies
Better policies played a critical role inthe
region’s recent relative success, supported by
much broader social consensus about the importance
of macroeconomic stability. In fact,
macroeconomic policies remain prudent in
many...