When we look to the future, I see no need for us to retain our long held pessimism about our country’s economic future. For a start, we should gain some comfort from the fact that in economic terms, there was a clear improvement from the 1970s to the 1980s and an even bigger one to the 1990s.
Factors which may affect the region’s growth over the next year are external financing conditions, the extent of the expected slowdown in the US economy, and uncertainties about the pace of Brazil’s recovery. Moreover, a number of countries have fragile banking systems, which may affect economic growth in the medium term.