The 2008-2012 Country Program Evaluation (CPE) concludes that the Bank's program was programmatically aligned with Government's National Plan for Human Development and addressed five areas essential for growth and poverty reduction. The one significant omission in the Bank's program from a...

The 2008-2012 Country Program Evaluation for Guyana concludes that the Bank's strategy was aligned with the development objectives and economic priorities of the government. Nevertheless, its program has produced mixed results. In infrastructure, progress was achieved by consolidating the...

In 2010 the Governors of the IDB approved two formal agreements -the "Cancun Declaration" and the "Report on the Ninth General Increase in the Resources of the Inter-American Development Bank"- leading to the Bank's Ninth General Capital Increase (IDB-9). These agreements tied IDB-9 to a series...

One of the most debated parts of the IDB-9 Agreement was the requirement that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or Bank) enhance its macroeconomic analysis and link it to its country programming to avoid lending in unsustainable macroeconomic situations. The IDB-9 Agreement mandated that...

The World Economic Forum (WEF) views competitiveness as the potential of a country to grow in a sustained way over the medium to long term and thus create prosperity for its citizens. The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed by Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin of Columbia University...

For women microentrepreneurs, access to financial services matters. It is critical to their ability to make productive investments in their businesses. As part of IDB's efforts to strengthen women's roles in economic development, the Women in Development Unit undertook a study to analyze the...

International accounting standards constitute a typical instrument of harmonization and eventually integration of the Latin American and Caribbean financial markets. This book focuses primarily on accounting standards for large companies in some cases traded in stock exchanges.

The 2007 Report on Economic and Social Progress in Latin America analyzes the nature and evolution of sovereign debt in Latin America and discusses the policies that can be followed by countries and international financial institutions (IFIs) to reduce the vulnerabilities associated with it....

Competing in the world economy does not automatically boost a nation's productivity and restructure its economy. Such progress requires mobilizing capital, employment, technology and knowledge. Opportunities beyond the business realm must be fully exploited to the benfit of society as a whole....

Credit supplied by the banking sector is the most important funding source for firms and households in Latin America and the Caribbean. Unfortunately, credit is scarce, costly and volatile. Without deep and stable credit markets, the region will be hard pressed to achieve high and sustainable...