Presentation

Abstract

The map of Latin America is made up of a significant number of countries with governments that claim to be progressive or left-wing. At the beginning of 2023, the five largest economies in the region had this type of government. In several of these countries, it was a recent result, after a long period in which the Washington Consensus agenda predominated. For example, in Mexico, the execution of an economic policy and a strategy for transforming the economy and society based on the recommendations of the IMF and the World Bank, carrying out the so-called structural reforms, began in the late 1980s. last century and continued until the end of Enrique Peña Nieto's government, in December 2018. Along the way, there were various banking, stock market, and exchange market crises, recessions of varying scope, maintenance of notable social inequality, and weak economic growth. In Colombia, continuity was not affected even by the permanence of political-military conflicts and the maintenance of armed organizations. This implies, as highlighted in the text entitled Progressive Governments and Economic Policy in Latin America, which is part of this issue of the magazine, a relevant change in recent years.

The overall view, with some emphasis on the two largest economies in the region, that gives content to this issue of the magazine considers the space of economic policy as a result of the action of groups and social sectors that act in the very field of the State. It is highlighted that within each of the States in the region, struggles are carried out and various projects are promoted, which can even raise serious differences between relevant state institutions such as governments and central banks. Under current conditions, notable restrictions on economic activity are observed throughout the region as a result of the increase in the cost of credit and the maintenance of external restrictions on financing. Furthermore, a few positive results resulted from the placement of resources in multiple financial spaces. Promoting a project that considers expanding investment is particularly difficult. Creating the conditions for various social groups to commit to modifying the capital formation process with the perspective of expanding production capacities based on the increase and predominance of formal employment is not an easy task. In economic policy, the preponderance of monetary matters is not possible, especially if the control of inflation is postulated as a priority task. The key is the creation of conditions for the increase in production capacities, which necessarily consider a set of social forces that drive it.