The implementation of social safety nets such as unemployment insurance, are necessary within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to support poor and vulnerable nations during cyclical downturns, and prevent them from slipping back into poverty.
The World Bank, in a statement, has noted that the region, over the past few years, has not achieved its economic growth projections, and the “prospects for 2019 have deteriorated”. The statement noted that the weaker economic growth is having a predictable impact on social indicators, for example in Brazil, which saw an increase in monetary poverty of approximately three percentage points between 2014 and 2017.
“The LAC region grew 0.7 percent in 2018. The main reasons for the weak 2018 growth were Argentina’s 2.5 percent GDP contraction, a slow recovery in Brazil after the major recession of 2015 and 2016, anemic growth in Mexico due to political uncertainty, and the collapse of Venezuela’s economy,” it was stated.