We can see that at the global level the trade-off between economic growth and inflation has taken a turn towards the alternative of sacrificing economic growth to focus on controlling inflation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that the advanced economies will show growth of only 1.1%, while the developing economies will reach a figure in the neighborhood of 3.7% by 2023. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is not expected to experience a recession, but its growth in 2023 will be half of that estimated for 2022 and one-quarter of the amount forecast for 2021: at a meager 1.7%. The consequences for the region’s countries will be negative, creating more complicated scenarios as they continue to cope with the aftereffects of Covid-19. Our development finance institutions will therefore have a first major challenge to confront: seeing to the short-term and offsetting the economic cycle that is headed towards a slowdown or recession.

As a result of all of this, some sectors considered to be strategic, like agriculture, the pharmaceutical and health industries, semiconductors, fuel and clean energy, have emerged more forcefully. Simultaneously, the strong interlinkage between national public policy and international agendas, like the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, global energy and food security and the environment, has been further strengthened.

For that reason, the 53rd Meeting of the ALIDE General Assembly will examine Latin America’s potential for, in the scenario of the global economy, establishing relations with the various different regions of the world to take advantage of its diversity of resources, attract investment flows and get world class supplier enterprises to establish premises in the region; and mobilize its own domestic capacities and capital from citizens abroad. In this connection, it is important to discuss the role of public policy and the acts of development banks in a more diversified world with State involvement in boosting economic development, as can be seen in several different countries, particularly the most important developed economies, with a view to reducing their vulnerabilities and dependency on others.