COVERITLIVE.COM

12:20

Fred Barbash - moderator - We are getting ready to start the chat - please stay tuned.

12:29

Fred Barbash-Moderator -
Good afternoon everyone.

Mauricio Cárdenas is a senior fellow and director of the Latin American Initiative. Formerly minister of Economic Development and Transportation, and director of National Planning of Colombia, his research focuses on international and development economics. He is also the president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).

He is our guest today and will take your questions on U.S.-Latin America relations. Welcome Mauricio.

Let’s get started.

12:30

Mauricio Cárdenas - Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to today's questions.

12:30

[Comment From Shawn]
Can you explain how the current global financial problems have affected Latin American countries? Have the dealt with the crisis better than other countries?

12:31

Mauricio Cárdenas - Most of the countries in the region are in a recession, but not in a deep crisis. Interestingly, many are seeing signs of recovery, so probably the worst is over.

12:32

Mauricio Cárdenas - The key reason why they are doing better now is that they were able to a large extent to adopt counter-cyclical measures like lowering interest rates and increasing government expenditures.

12:33

Mauricio Cárdenas - This sounds obvious and natural to do, but it's the first time in a long time that Latin America has been able to deal in this way with a crisis.

12:33

[Comment From Erin]
What do you think will happen to commodity prices in the next few months, and how will that affect Latin American economies?

12:34

Mauricio Cárdenas - Commodity prices reached a peak in mid 2008, then they declined fast until the beginning of this year. During 2009, they have recovered somewhat, but my sense is that the recent increase was driven by speculative forces rather than an increase in demand.

12:35

Mauricio Cárdenas - Therefore, I expect commodity prices to stabalize or slightly fall given the very high inventories in the world today.

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