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By Andres Bianchi

Contents

The economic crisis: Characteristics and causes

The adjustment process

Toward growth with external balance: Growing out of debt and reducing the external transfer of resources

Statistical tables and graphs

From the Introduction

Between 1981 and 1985 Latin America has experienced its deepest and longest economic crisis since the ill-fated years of the Great Depression. Indeed, so much ground has been lost that, from the standpoint of economic welfare, it is probable that the 1980s will turn out to be a "lost decade" for many of the region's economies, in more than half of which per capita income may prove to be substantially lower in 1990 than it was in 1980. The crisis has also been widespread and multi-faceted, as well as severe and protracted. Aithough its repercussions have been more serious and longer lasting in some countries than in others, they have affected both large economies like Mexico and Brazil -- that rank among the 12 biggest in the world -- and the tiny countries of Central America and the Caribbean; oil-exporters like Venezuela and economies totally dependent on imports of petroleum as Uruguay and Paraguay; countries pursuing relatively more dirigist and inward-oriented development strategies as well as those relying on more market-oriented and outward-looking policies.

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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more