International. Although for many Latin American governments the fact that the region has been able to overcome the international economic crisis without being affected is a symptom of confidence that the economic policies adopted are on track, the Cepal launched an alert for the risks of a new crisis.
According to alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC, compared to five years ago, countries are not better prepared, because they have slightly higher debt levels, weakened current accounts and lower percentages of economic growth.
He explained that with the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers bank, Latin American countries had to make a fiscal effort to get out of the crisis well, but that they have not yet recovered, which would cause that if there were to be an exit of Greece from the European Union and world markets would enter a high level of distrust, the region would not have much room for manoeuvre.
But despite the warning, Latin America continues to have a good image in the international arena, with a solid and safe economy for investment. This is demonstrated by ECLAC data on the behavior of foreign direct investment in the region during 2011.
The entity indicated that Latin America and the Caribbean received US$153,448 million of foreign direct investment last year, a figure that represents 10% of these global flows. This is the largest amount of foreign investment it has received in its history, surpassing the all-time high of 2008 with US$137,001 million.
The main recipients of investment in 2011 were Brazil with 43.8%, Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
