Employment

Latin American and Caribbean countries continue to face challenges in designing and enforcing public policies that promote good governance and inclusive societies. Along with difficult economic conditions, such setbacks to previous progress have spurred declining levels of trust in public institutions. In order to sustain inclusive growth, Latin American and Caribbean countries need to continue implementing public sector reforms that promote fairness for all.
Government at a Glance 2020: Latin America and the Caribbean presents internationally comparable indicators of public governance practices and reforms, showing how these reforms are implemented and what results they achieve. The indicators allow the benchmarking of best practices in the LAC region and against OECD countries and indicate areas that need attention and improvement if countries are to achieve outcomes such as increased trust in government.

This policy brief reviews the experience of the countries under the Euro currency,
focusing on those that have been under significant pressure in recent years—
Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, referred to as “emerging” economies. At
first they experienced stable growth and converged to the most advanced
countries, but subsequent adjustment has proven elusive due to macroeconomic
conditions, worsening structural deficiencies, and incomplete integration. The
conditions for the survival of the Euro zone are complex and still far from
fulfillment. While Latin America has recently experienced a similar period of
stable growth, there is no room for complacency. The main lesson from Europe’s
experience is that Latin America must take advantage of the current context of
growth, stability and optimism in order to carry out much-needed reforms that
will leave countries adequately prepared to face a downturn in the world
economy.