MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latinamerica forecasted to expand 3% or more, this year

IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno

The Latinamerican economy is poised to expand 3% or more in 2010, the year that will signal the beginning of recovery for the region according to the Inter American Development Bank, (IDB), President Luis Alberto Moreno.

“This year we are witnessing a recovery of the global economy, and we are hopeful that in Latinamerica overall growth will be above 3%”, said Moreno at the closing ceremony of the IDB Central American and Dominican Republic governors meeting held over the weekend in El Salvador.

However Moreno pointed out that the world’ main economies will not experience significant growth rates this year or in 2011.

“What the technical staff of the IDB are telling me is that before 2013 or 2014 we are not going to see a situation similar to those numbers the global economy was showing before the crisis”, said Moreno. He went on to praise the Salvador meeting because “governors did a full sincere immersion into what is happening in the region, and the world”.

“We obviously did a balance of what happened last year, but above all projections of the years to come, the challenges we must confront”, added the IDB president.

Among those issues was increasing the working capital of the multilateral organization and issues related to “social aspects and the integration process”.

Finally he praised the proposal from Salvador president Mauricio Funes for the creation of a special fund to assist those countries that suffer major tragedies.

“We are committed to study it, analyze it, we already have some instruments for certain type of risks, insurance risks against natural disasters, but what mother nature has shown is this year is that she’s almighty and comes out with no contemplations”.

Yes, “we think it necessary to have the instruments so that countries can be ready for that day (which hopefully never comes), never happens but for which we are ready to act immediately”.-

The meeting in El Salvador was attended by IDB governors and regional managers from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Dominica Republic.