Shaking Up Economic Progress
The Latin America and Caribbean region has achieved remarkable economic and social progress over the last decade, gradually shifting toward middle-income status. Economic growth reached an average annual rate of 3.2 percent over 2000–14, noticeably...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English Spanish |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/771491511793184415/Shaking-up-economic-progress-aggregate-shocks-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28892 |
| Summary: | The Latin America and Caribbean
region has achieved remarkable economic and social progress
over the last decade, gradually shifting toward
middle-income status. Economic growth reached an average
annual rate of 3.2 percent over 2000–14, noticeably higher
than in previous decades. This favorable context contributed
to significant poverty reduction and expansion of the middle
class. The proportion of the region's 600 million
people living in extreme poverty, defined in the region as
life on less than 2.50 dollars a day, was cut in half
between 2003 and 2012, to 12.3 percent. Similarly, the share
of Latin Americans living in moderate poverty, corresponding
to living on less than 4.00 dollars a day, fell from 41.1
percent to 25.3 percent. Since 2011, there have been more
Latin Americans in the middle class than in poverty, and the
middle class is projected to become the largest group in the
region (World Bank 2014a). The gains attained span other
areas of human development such as increased access to basic
services and lower child and maternal mortality. |
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