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Americas: Inter-American Development Bank - Sustainability Question Hangs Over Good Record - While Latin America's Financial Leaders Celebrate The Region's Growth, Analysts Warn That Reform Momentum Must Be Maintained. James Eedes Reports From Okinawa.

Article Excerpt
What a difference a year makes. A year ago, at the Inter-American Development Bank's 45th annual meeting of the board of governors in Peru, the talk was of a modest recovery after five years of stagnation. Latin America and the Caribbean had grown by 1.5% in 2003, an incipient rebound that was in welcome contrast to the contraction of the previous year. Yet, the mood was still cautious, reflecting the fragility of the revival.

A year later, on the opposite side of the world in Okinawa, Japan, there was an altogether different tone to the bank's 46th annual meeting. Its governors - finance ministers and central bank governors - were able to crow about growth of 5.7% across the region, easily outstripping the most optimistic forecasts a year earlier and the fastest expansion since 1980. With the exception of Haiti, every Latin American and Caribbean country recorded positive growth, pushing aggregate per capita income up more than 4%, in contrast to a cumulative 1.7% decline over the previous five years. And for the first time in several years the unemployment rate in the region fell.

Asian demand

Though the long trip to Japan had presented delegates with a travel headache (causing many to abandon the trip), it was fitting that the meeting was held in Asia, given that it is Asian demand for Latin America's...

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