It will be an important driver for economic growth over the next four years.
Strengthening the social contract in societies with pervasive poverty and highly unequal distribution of income will continue to challenge many Latin American governments for some time to come.
Lower fiscal and external vulnerabilities diminishes the downside risk for these economies over the short term. A continuation of this recent performance is therefore expected in 2006.
The fundamentals of the region have improved. Countries have taken advantage of the favorable international environment.
Latin America still shows very high levels of poverty and the most unequal distribution of income in the world.
Current moderate growth prospects will make it more difficult to deepen the still-weak stability in the region and, therefore, fundamentally improve its creditworthiness.
