The Labor Market Story Behind Latin America's Transformation : LAC Semiannual Report, October 2012
After a robust recovery following the global crisis, Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) has entered into a phase of lower growth dynamics: economic activity in the region is expected to expand by about 3 percent in 2012, after having grown at 4...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2012
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/10/16843007/labor-market-story-behind-latin-americas-transformation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11884 |
Summary: | After a robust recovery following the
global crisis, Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) has
entered into a phase of lower growth dynamics: economic
activity in the region is expected to expand by about 3
percent in 2012, after having grown at 4 percent in 2011 and
6 percent in 2010. This deceleration is not specific to LAC
but is part of a global slowdown. World growth is indeed
declining sharply, from 4.5 percent in 2011 to about 2.3
percent in 2012. Notably, the slowdown in middle-income
regions has taken place in a highly synchronized manner:
growth rates in LAC, Eastern Europe and South East Asia have
fallen by a very similar magnitude (about 3 percentage
points) between 2010 and 2012. While this synchronization
reflects exogenous (global) forces the spillover to emerging
markets of weaker activity in the world's growth poles,
particularly Europe and China it also reflects endogenous
(internal) dynamics, particularly the fact that many Middle
Income Countries (MIC) had already reached in 2010-2011 the
peak of their own business cycles. This synchronicity
notwithstanding, the 2012 growth forecasts for individual
countries in LAC are significantly heterogeneous, reflecting
complex interactions between external and country-specific
factors. The first chapter, which is shorter, concerns the
economic juncture and growth prospects. The second chapter,
which is longer and more substantive, deals with selected
labor issues from both the structural and cyclical viewpoints. |
---|