(12 July 2011) "Introducing employment and income policies is fundamental for development with equality", this was according to the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, speaking during a G-20 seminar held today in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The meeting on "Economic crisis, recovery and employment" was opened by the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, Héctor Timerman, the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Carlos Tomada, and the labour spokesperson for the French President at the G-20, Gilles de Robien.
During the recent international economic crisis, the region's countries showed considerable creativity in implementing countercyclical policies aimed at maintaining the population's income and employment, stated Bárcena, who was the first main speaker on the panel entitled "Searching for coherence between macroeconomic policies and employment".
Between 2008 and 2009, fiscal spending in Latin America and the Caribbean rose from 26.5% to 28% of GDP despite falling incomes, and the monetary authorities reduced interest rates and introduced various measures to promote access to credit, she explained.
Some countries strengthened public banking to offset the squeeze on private loans, Bárcena went on to say.
During her address, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC affirmed that only seven Latin American and Caribbean countries have unemployment benefits or insurance (Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela), although coverage remains insufficient to deal with moments of crisis.
She described how, in this crisis in particular, many of the region's countries beefed up their unemployment insurance, set up emergency employment schemes, maintained proactive policies to recover minimum wages, extended coverage of their social protection mechanisms and introduced measures to keep workers in their jobs.
In this sense, she described the Productive Recovery Programme (REPRO) implemented by the Argentine Government as a promising example. This type of programme has also been applied in Chile, Mexico and Uruguay.
Furthermore, she stressed that the region's countries must boost productive development though macroeconomic policies that not only aim to curb inflation but also consider other variables affecting job creation, such as currency appreciation.
She concluded that improving industrial and technological development, increasing investment and strengthening physical and social infrastructure are other challenges that the region's countries must face to achieve "authentic" competitiveness, and thus generate more and better jobs.
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E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 210 2040.
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