Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2016: The region amid the tensions of globalization.
Nanno Mulder, CEPAL - Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
The 2017 edition of Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy reviews international and regional developments from a trade perspective, describing the principal global economic trends and structural changes in international trade, the main areas of trade growth and the changes these drive in the region. Globalization has become increasingly questioned in the past few years, particularly in the developed countries. The slowdown in trade, foreign direct investment and other financial flows reflects lacklustre global economic growth in the post-crisis period and has led to high unemployment and wage stagnation, particularly in Europe. In this global context, Latin America's participation in the global economy continues to lag: its share in global exports of goods and services remains stagnant and it has lost ground in trade of high-technology goods and modern services. Although the share of Latin America and the Caribbean in global foreign direct investment flows has risen, its low-technology specialization has deepened. The region’s participation in global value chains has increased this century, but remains below the global average and consists mainly of providing raw materials for third countries’ exports. Poor digital connectivity also hampers the region’s capacity to enter new dynamic sectors. Amid still-sluggish regional and global economic growth, the Latin American and Caribbean region’s exports and imports will fall for the fourth year running in 2016. Thereafter, a modest upturn is projected in regional trade in 2017-2020.
About the speaker
Nanno Mulder is Head of the International Trade Unit in the Division of International Trade and Integration of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. His main areas of research and technical assistance are global value chains in general and global services in particular, trade relations between Latin America and Asia and sustainable trade with a focus on the internationalization of SMEs and climate change. Mr Mulder worked as an economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the team for Latin America of the Economic Department (2002-2005) and as a researcher at the French Centre for Prospective and International Studies (CEPII) (1996 -2002). He has a Master's and PhD in economics from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Mr. Mulder is also President of the Latin American network for research and policy services (www.redlas.net). From January to March 2017, he is a visiting researcher at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague.
Venue: Conference room (room 0.16 & 0.17)
Date: 13 March 2017
Time: 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
