Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2024: How can the region advance the great productive transformation it needs? Executive summary

For Latin America and the Caribbean to break from the trap of low growth and low productivity in which it is mired, the region will need to build more sophisticated and diversified economies and bring about virtuous structural change. This will entail a long-term effort, not least the continued improvement of economic fundamentals. To this end, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has urged the countries of the region to scale up and enhance their productive development policies, adopting a new approach that differs substantially from what has hitherto been referred to as “industrial policies”. The region will not have to start afresh in that regard but there is plenty of room to improve efforts.

As parts of its analysis of what needs to be done and how to do it, ECLAC presents this Overview of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, in which it not only offers an initial study of current efforts in the region, but also proposes some 60 recommendations to guide countries and their territories in this transformation towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future.