Finance & Development articles from March 1995

Finance & Development archives from March 1995

Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... After a decade of economic adjustment and reform, many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are enjoying their best economic prospects in years. But the reforms must be sustained and, in many cases, deepened if the remaining challenges...

Consolidating economic reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... The economic reforms that have been sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean since the late 1980s are bearing fruit. To consolidate these reforms, governments now need to move quickly to accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty. The Mexican...

Reforming Latin America's old-age pension systems. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Latin America's public pension plans have been battered by inflation and demographic trends. A few countries have introduced private pension plans, but even if these types of plans are adopted throughout the region, public schemes will not...

Tax reform in Latin America. (includes related article) (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Tax reform has swept Latin America over the past decade, complementing the structural changes in the region's economies. But reform must be deepened to make the most of the economic progress achieved in the region and to help integrate Latin...

Financing private power in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... The electric power sector in Latin America and the Caribbean is being opened to competition and private ownership in response to the growing demand for electric power in the region. Meeting the capital needs of the sector will require development...

The growth of Latin America's equity markets. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... The Collapse of the Mexican peso in December 1994, triggered by social unrest in Chiapas and a massive outflow of capital, caused Mexico's stock market to plummet: IFC's share price index for Mexico lost 34 percent in US dollar terms in December,...

The Uruguay Round: a boon for the world economy. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Although it is too early to tell what the impact of the Uruguay Round agreement will be, the outlook is positive. Developing countries stand to gain more than they lose, and world income could grow substantially. The Uruguay Round multilateral...

Antidumping: unfair trade or unfair remedy? (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Antidumping, as currently practiced, is anticompetitive, threatens to further distort trade patterns, and undercuts the benefits of multilateral liberalization efforts. At a time when the world is celebrating the successful conclusion of the...

Regional trade blocs: trade creating or diverting? (includes related article) (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Will the rapidly proliferating regional arrangements turn out to be "building blocks" or "stumbling blocks" for liberalizing trade on a non-discriminatory, multilateral basis? Much will hinge on how agreements are designed and carried out....

Infrastructure: a ladder for the poor. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Better infrastructure can play a crucial role in alleviating poverty, but to do so traditional approaches to infrastructure delivery have to be overhauled. The World Development Report 1994 proposes a new agenda that emphasizes user involvement,...

Dollarization in transition economies. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Foreign currency deposits in the former centrally planned economies increased rapidly in the early 1990s, as high inflation and interest rate regulations made domestic currency assets unattractive. Since then, however, several countries have...

Capital markets and developing country firms. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... Capital flows to emerging markets have grown enormously in recent years, and firms operating in these markets can now take advantage of a wider choice of financing instruments. How they choose between different instruments is a key issue for...

The plundering of agriculture in developing countries. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... If a country wants to achieve faster agricultural growth, faster economic growth, and fewer poor people, it should stop taxing agriculture relative to other sectors. Industry, long considered the engine of growth, has been the darling of...

Macroeconomic crisis and adjustment. (Latin America and the Caribbean: The Challenges Ahead)
March 1, 1995... With the harsh macroeconomic shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, attention has turned increasingly to macroeconomic adjustment in developing countries. A recent World Bank study shows that it is not so much external shocks but domestic responses that...