To promote public investment is crucial for sustaining economic growth in the region, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said in Lima, Peru, where she participated in several high-level events.
Alicia Bárcena held a series of interviews with authorities of the Ministries of Economy and Finance of several countries of the region and will accompany the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, during his visit to Peru to attend the 2015 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) being held until October 11.
The senior United Nations official was one of the speakers at the Seventh Meeting of Finance Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean, organized this Thursday, October 8 by Peru’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
At the meeting, authorities discussed how to achieve a fiscal consolidation without affecting long-term growth, and how to confront the global and regional economic stagnation.
In her presentation, Bárcena highlighted the fact that the fall in the investment rate is one of the main factors explaining the reduction of potential growth in the region’s economies. According to the last projections by ECLAC released this week, the Latin America and Caribbean gross domestic product will contract -0.3% in 2015 and will grow 0.7% in 2016.
“The fall of investment in several countries, especially in sectors related to production and export of commodities, sets a need to look for alternatives to compensate this negative effect. The investment in infrastructure can have important benefits in medium- and long-term growth,” she said.
Bárcena also said that in the current context fiscal policy must orient not only towards moderating the economic cycles, but also towards fostering productive development and structural change, through the protection of investment throughout time.
ECLAC’s Executive Secretary also participated in the seminar “Growth and Inclusion in Latin America: the Next Decade,” where she stressed that to confront inequality it is necessary to equalize to grow, and grow to equalize. “This requires a new State-market-society equation, which creates virtuous ties between institutions and public and private agents,” she added.
Bárcena said that fiscal policy must play a redistributive role and that fiscal reforms must focus on income tax and on building progressive fiscal systems that fight evasion.
Alicia Bárcena also referred to the importance of working for the economic autonomy of women, considering that this is one of the main tools for fighting inequality.
At the event “Global Tax Reform Beyond BEPS,” organized by the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), ECLAC’s Executive Secretary presented the economic overview of the region faced with the world’s complex situation, and reaffirmed the need to count on a more fair and inclusive global fiscal system, which takes into consideration developing countries.
