In his opinion, “the delay in the vaccination campaigns has generated that perhaps the first half of the year is a little less dynamic” than estimated.
For Werner, the Monetary Fund expected “that the acceleration of the vaccination campaigns, the strong economic recovery that is being expected in the United States economy, the recovery of the Chinese economy and the significant increases in the prices of raw materials, As well as the low international interest rates, they would help the recovery in Latin America in the second half of the year to be quite strong and end up being a good year for the region, with growth of between 4.5% and 5%. % “.
“However, given that the drop in 2020 was around 7%, we are still going to be below the level that was before the pandemic. Therefore, lags will accumulate in the social area, in the area of poverty, a situation that was no longer good in Latin America, “he added, in an interview published yesterday on the IMF website.
The manager also considered that the level of per capita income in 2025 in the region “is probably similar to what we saw in 2015, which also shows a problem of worsening poverty, of deterioration in income distribution.”
Against this background, he indicated that Latin America “will also require that in the fiscal and financial sphere important measures be taken to strengthen public finances. As the economy normalizes, it will also be necessary to normalize public finances ”.
“Latin America is one of the regions of the world where the greatest number of classroom days has been lost,” he emphasized.
At the same time, he pointed out that 60% of the financial support that the IMF granted during the pandemic was directed to Latin America through emergency lines, contingent lines and the extension of some programs.
On the other hand, Werner highlighted that the organization led by Kristalina Georgieva “has moved to think about the concept of macroeconomic stabilization as a broader concept, in which it is not only enough to stabilize the financial variables, but also to protect and improve certain indicators. social, even during processes of macro-financial stability ”.
“It also evolved in its financial tools: from only having corrective instruments to having preventive instruments such as our flexible credit lines and the preventive credit line,” he said.
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