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For Latin America and the Caribbean, the volatile nature of capital flows, typical of the third phase of globalization, has brought with it unstable economic growth. One reflection of this volatility has been the frequent financial crises that have struck the industrialized world and developing nations in the past three decades, which have further deepened macroeconomic and financial imbalance between these two blocs.
At its 29th Session, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has alerted its member governments about the importance of this issue, proposing a series of measures to deal with these problems at the national and international levels.
In its report, Globalization and Development, ECLAC points out that along with international volatility, problems derived from pro-cyclic macroeconomic management have become widespread throughout the region. There is also a lack of the appropriate international financial institutions that can help correct unstable markets, imbalances in financial development and the economic performance between developing and developing countries. To correct these imbalances, ECLAC considers it vital to meet two basic objectives: achieve access to stable financing and to a better margin for adopting counter-cyclic policies.
In its Global Agenda, ECLAC also underlines the need to:
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Reduce instability at the source
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Establish preventive macroeconomic supervision
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Have the International Monetary Fund serve as a quasi-lender of last resort
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Create multilateral systems for solvency problems
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Strengthen multilateral development banking
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Achieve a consensus on the extent of conditions
As these issues are a priority for ECLAC, particularly during the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico, in March 2002, ECLAC has prepared several related documents that can be found following this link.
