Macroeconomy for decent work

The Latin American countries made deep economic reforms in the framework of the so-called Washington Consensus -intensive trade and financial liberalizations, privatizations, and introduction of fiscal discipline- convinced that stability, economic growth, and greater wellbeing would thus be ensured. The fact is that price-level stability was achieved in the course of the last two decades, but with meagre GDP growth and unstable production, employment, access to credit, and exchange rate. The volatile behaviour of these macroeconomic variables has discouraged capital formation, employment, and productivity in the economies, while financial capital flows have played a key role in this respect. As a result, it is necessary to move from the strong financial and short-term bias of the approach recommended by the Washington Consensus towards an outlook explicitly prioritizing the effect of productive development policies and their impact on equity.