Latin American economies face significant challenges as they navigate increased uncertainty due to tightening global financial conditions, persistent inflation, lower global growth rates, and increased social unrest. These conditions make policymaking more difficult as leaders must focus on macroeconomic stability and social cohesion. According to the World Bank, low growth rates are expected in 2023 and 2024 for the region, making the need for structural factors to be addressed, such as social and infrastructure investment, innovation in education, and policy reforms that address climate change. However, the question of how to jumpstart an economic recovery process in the region that allows for continued dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable growth looms large.
To discuss these issues, Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, vice president for the Latin American and the Caribbean region at the World Bank, provided commentary on the region’s economic outlook and the region’s opportunities to rebuild and become more equitable and inclusive societies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the event summary here.
Featuring
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo is the vice president for the Latin America and the Caribbean region at the World Bank. He oversees the World Bank’s relations with 31 countries and has a portfolio of ongoing projects, technical assistance, and grants of almost $32 billion. Under his leadership, the World Bank’s operations in the region focus on fueling growth, reducing poverty, supporting equality, and protecting the environment. Jaramillo was previously the World Bank’s country director for Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, and Uganda, based in Nairobi. Prior to his role in Africa, Jaramillo was the senior director of the World Bank Group’s Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice (MTI), where he led a global team of more than 450 economists. Since joining the World Bank in 2002, he has served two terms as country director in the Latin America and Caribbean Region. Before joining the World Bank, Jaramillo was a public servant in the Government of Colombia, holding offices in the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, and the Ministry of Trade. Jaramillo holds an M.A. and a Ph. D. in development economics from Stanford University. He has taught at the department of economics at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota and at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Alejandro Werner (moderator) is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from ITAM.