Notwithstanding what a recent World Bank report says has been “significant progress” in economic stabilization in Latin America and the Caribbean over recent decades, the Bank’s recent assessment of the region, contained in a report made public earlier in April, is by no means oozing confidence about the overall immediate future of the economies of the region. In fact, if there is general acceptance that the surge in the country’s oil recovery makes Guyana the present standout among the countries of the hemisphere, the Bank remains insistent that growth in the LAC countries has stalled, inflicting an undermining effect on the economies of most of the region.
The Bank’s new report, titled, “Competition: The Missing Ingredient for Growth,” makes no bones about what it says are the potential areas that demand focused remedial action. Here the Bank cites the leveraging of competition policies and institutions as keys to an impactful growth strategy for the region as a whole. The news will be met with disappointment in a region which had been somewhat buoyed by the ‘lift’ afforded by Guyana’s world class oil discovery and the outcomes of that development. The recent World Bank Report forecasts that regional GDP will expand by 1.6 percent in 2024 and by 2.7 and 2.6 in 2025 and 2026, respectively, reportedly the lowest compared with all of the other parts of the world and insufficient to drive prosperity.