Transnational criminal gangs have become such a serious problem in Latin America that they are damaging the region's overall economic performance, according to a senior IMF official. Rodrigo Valdés, director of the Western Hemisphere Fund, said governments in the region needed to work together to fight illegal groups, whose activities - including drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and extortion - are harming growth and investment and ruining the lives of citizens. The growing global demand for cocaine has fueled the rise of larger and more powerful drug cartels throughout Latin America. The gangs, some of which have links to organized crime in Europe, the United States and Africa, have recently expanded their smuggling routes, causing bloodshed in the region's previously most stable countries, such as Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The fund’s research, which will be published at its annual meeting next month in Marrakech, showed that “having a higher homicide rate is more than correlated lower economic performance, in terms of growth, in terms of Jordan Mobile Number List investment,” Valdés said, noting that surveys throughout the region showed that increased crime is the first or second biggest concern of citizens. “It is not a global concern, but for [Latin America] this has to be a priority,” he told the Financial Times. Valdés, a Chilean economist and former finance minister who took over at the IMF in May, said the crime wave was also linked to problems in society, such as a "horrible" income distribution and a broader lack of opportunity. but he added: "We have to work on the efficiency of the State to control crime." Argentina, where inflation has reached 114%, has repeatedly missed the economic targets of the IMF's expanded 30-month financing facility agreed to last year.
The IMF official praised Latin American nations in a blog this week for responding “appropriately” to the coronavirus pandemic, saying governments spent more to confront Covid-19, like other countries, but then withdrew the additional spending more quickly. , helping to avoid excessive debt. and control inflation. He also praised regional central banks for acting with “exceptional speed” to raise interest rates earlier and more than elsewhere. But now governments need to ensure a stable and predictable investment environment and boost productivity through increased spending on health and education so that the region benefits from the transition to clean energy and the relocation of production closer to big markets. consumers, Valdés said. “Energy and climate change is an issue that will make the region very important,” said Valdés. “We have the mining side and also green hydrogen, and the relocation of production chains due to geopolitical and security considerations.