Latin America Needs To Double GDP By 2025 To Address Poverty - IDB

It is possible for Latin America and the Caribbean to reduce poverty to less than 10 percent by 2025, President of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) Luis Alberto Moreno said here Friday.

During the launch of his book "The decade of Latin America and the Caribbean: a real opportunity" in Argentina, Moreno said if the region keeps its current growth rate, its gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income would be doubled in 14 years.

In such a scenario, poverty in the region could be reduced from 32 percent to just under 10 percent of the population, Moreno said.

The number of upper middle class would then reach 500 million, almost 75 percent of the population, Moreno said.

"This would allow us to close, finally, the terrible gap of income that still exists in our society," he said.

Moreno said this could happen thanks to two big trends: the progress of Latin America and the Caribbean in the past 20 years and the accelerated South-South trade among the emerging economies.

Despite the many political and economic crises from 1990 to 2010, the region has doubled its average per capita GDP and dramatically reduced inflation and the external debt. Progress on social programs is also remarkable, Moreno said.

Meanwhile, the IDB chief said the region needs to redouble efforts to increase productivity, improve education quality, increase investments in research, innovations and infrastructure, as well as to prevent violence and crimes.

"The governments also must strengthen the macroeconomic policies to properly manage the risks related to the flow of capitals and the terms of the exchange, as well as to protect from the adverse external shocks."

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