By Jorge Familiar
Jorge Familiar is World Bank vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean
As Latin America and the Caribbean begins to emerge from six years of economic slowdown, including two of recession, it is essential to find ways to nurture and strengthen this budding recovery.
Economic growth was the central factor behind the region’s striking social and economic achievements of the last decade, when Latin America cut extreme poverty by half, significantly reduced inequality, and greatly expanded the middle class. But we no longer enjoy the conditions that enabled all this. The drop in the prices of commodities and the slowdown in key economies, such as China, hit the region hard.
