As usual in this series, Chapter 1 reviews the configuration of global risks and assesses the outstanding short term opportunities and challenges facing the LAC region. We document the significant slowdown in economic activity across the region, and explore the possibility of this being the...

As usual in this series, Chapter 1 reviews the configuration of global risks and assesses the outstanding short term opportunities and challenges facing the LAC region. We document the significant slowdown in economic activity across the region, and explore the possibility of this being the 'new...

This semiannual report examines the short and medium-term challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as the external factors that were instrumental in the region’s recent performance recede. In particular, we address the role of the exchange rate as a counter-cyclical policy tool to...

This paper presents a framework to analyse financial globalization. It argues that financial globalization needs to take into account the relation between money (particularly in its role as store of value), asset and factor price flexibility, and contractual and regulatory institutions....

This semiannual report ??? a product of the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank ??? examines the short and medium-term challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as the external factors that were instrumental in the region???s...

Este informe semestral, producido por la Oficina del Economista Jefe para America Latina y el Caribe del Banco Mundial, examina los retos a los que America Latina y el Caribe (LAC por sus siglas en ingles, Latin America and the Caribbean) se enfrentan en el corto y medio plazo conforme pierden...

Este informe semestral - un producto de la oficina del Economista Jefe para America Latina y el Caribe (LAC) del Banco Mundial-examina los desafios de corto y mediano plazo a los que se enfrenta LAC, a medida que los factores externos que fueron decisivos en el buen desempeno de la region en la...

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are important for employment and economic activity; however, they are perceived to lack adequate financing, which hampers their growth. As a consequence, governments have implemented a number of programs to foster SME lending and attention has focused on...

The"conventional wisdom"in academic and policy circles argues that, while large and foreign banks are generally not interested in serving SMEs, small and niche banks have an advantage in doing so because they can overcome SME opaqueness through relationship lending. This paper shows that there...

This paper argues that the dominant policy paradigm on financial development is increasingly insufficient to address big emerging issues that are particularly relevant for financial systems in Latin America. This paradigm was shaped over the past decades by a fundamental shift in thinking toward...