Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2009

Latin America and the Global Economic Crisis

March 2009

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

An overview of the region up to 30 January 2009 by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (cepal)1 argues that the larger economies have been more directly affected by the global economic crisis (because in general they are more integrated with the global markets, especially finance), but are also better equipped to respond to it. In particular, Cepal sees South America as diverging from Central America and the Caribbean, which seem to be both less resilient in terms of their economies, and more exposed to the slump in the USA.