In a May 2008 speech at a forum organized by the Central Bank of Colombia, senior fellow Liliana Rojas-Suarez analyzes the effect of the global financial crisis on Latin America before an audience of high-level government officials. Drawing on points made in her forthcoming book, Growing Pains in Latin America, she argues that key actions taken before the crisis to switch to flexible exchange rates and avoid major disruptions in their domestic the banking systems have saved Latin America from what could have been even worse repercussions.
Additional reforms are still needed, however—especially those that would enable the implementation of countercyclical fiscal policy to counteract the effects of adverse external shocks.
Rojas-Suarez makes a similar case in a recent interview with CNN en Español in which she compares the actions during the crisis of U.S. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to those of central bankers in Latin America.
Growing Pains in Latin America: An Economic Growth Framework as Applied to Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru will be launched in the fall. A Spanish-language edition, Los desafìos del crecimiento en la América Latina: un nuevo enfoque will be released in partnership with the Fondo de cultura económica
