Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential

Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential

Central America’s priority is to recover from its deepest economic contraction and restore strong, sustainable economic growth. With increases in working age population projected to decline sharply, strong growth in the long run can only be achieve...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ulku, Hulya, Zaourak, Gabriel
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
MACROECONOMIC TRENDS
ECONOMIC GROWTH
PANDEMIC IMPACT
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
LABOR MARKET
EMPLOYMENT
EXPORTS
VALUE CHAIN
EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS
DIVERSIFICATION
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
SERVICES TRADE
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/782621618992892153/Unleashing-Central-Americas-Growth-Potential
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35503
id okr-10986-35503
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-355032021-08-04T18:06:57Z Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential Ulku, Hulya Zaourak, Gabriel MACROECONOMIC TRENDS ECONOMIC GROWTH PANDEMIC IMPACT CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH LABOR MARKET EMPLOYMENT EXPORTS VALUE CHAIN EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS DIVERSIFICATION FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT SERVICES TRADE Central America’s priority is to recover from its deepest economic contraction and restore strong, sustainable economic growth. With increases in working age population projected to decline sharply, strong growth in the long run can only be achieved with higher productivity. More effective participation in global value chains (GVCs), as well as a robust shift towards sophisticated exports of goods and services will be needed, but neither can be ensured without firms investing in productivity-enhancing innovations. With a high likelihood of limited structural change, greater aggregate productivity must come from within each sector of manufacturing, services and agriculture. The synthesis report analyzes the main findings of the Unleashing Central America’s Growth Potential Study, focusing on productivity and export performance of the region over the past three decades and accounting for the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on the region. It aims to identify broad strategic directions for the region that would help to increase sophistication of exports, reduce productivity gaps within the region and vis-à-vis other regions, and achieve higher productivity growth. Where relevant, the report suggests areas for further work that could help develop more granular policy recommendations. The rest of this synthesis report is organized as follows: the first section provides an overview of the growth performance of the region over the last thirty years, and provides the current and future challenges facing the region; the second section reviews the performance of productivity growth during 1991-2017; and the third section reviews the growth of exports of goods and services during 1991-2017. 2021-04-26T19:05:13Z 2021-04-26T19:05:13Z 2021-01 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/782621618992892153/Unleashing-Central-Americas-Growth-Potential http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35503 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Latin America & Caribbean
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic MACROECONOMIC TRENDS
ECONOMIC GROWTH
PANDEMIC IMPACT
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
LABOR MARKET
EMPLOYMENT
EXPORTS
VALUE CHAIN
EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS
DIVERSIFICATION
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
SERVICES TRADE
spellingShingle MACROECONOMIC TRENDS
ECONOMIC GROWTH
PANDEMIC IMPACT
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
LABOR MARKET
EMPLOYMENT
EXPORTS
VALUE CHAIN
EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS
DIVERSIFICATION
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
SERVICES TRADE
Ulku, Hulya
Zaourak, Gabriel
Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
description Central America’s priority is to recover from its deepest economic contraction and restore strong, sustainable economic growth. With increases in working age population projected to decline sharply, strong growth in the long run can only be achieved with higher productivity. More effective participation in global value chains (GVCs), as well as a robust shift towards sophisticated exports of goods and services will be needed, but neither can be ensured without firms investing in productivity-enhancing innovations. With a high likelihood of limited structural change, greater aggregate productivity must come from within each sector of manufacturing, services and agriculture. The synthesis report analyzes the main findings of the Unleashing Central America’s Growth Potential Study, focusing on productivity and export performance of the region over the past three decades and accounting for the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on the region. It aims to identify broad strategic directions for the region that would help to increase sophistication of exports, reduce productivity gaps within the region and vis-à-vis other regions, and achieve higher productivity growth. Where relevant, the report suggests areas for further work that could help develop more granular policy recommendations. The rest of this synthesis report is organized as follows: the first section provides an overview of the growth performance of the region over the last thirty years, and provides the current and future challenges facing the region; the second section reviews the performance of productivity growth during 1991-2017; and the third section reviews the growth of exports of goods and services during 1991-2017.
format Report
author Ulku, Hulya
Zaourak, Gabriel
author_facet Ulku, Hulya
Zaourak, Gabriel
author_sort Ulku, Hulya
title Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential
title_short Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential
title_full Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential
title_fullStr Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential
title_full_unstemmed Unleashing Central America's Growth Potential
title_sort unleashing central america's growth potential
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/782621618992892153/Unleashing-Central-Americas-Growth-Potential
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35503
_version_ 1764483169947484160

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