Reports on Caribbean Economy

The Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean is an annual publication prepared by the Economic
Development Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). This 2009 edition was prepared
under the supervision of Osvaldo Kacef, Director of the Division; Jürgen Weller was responsible for its overall coordination.
In the preparation of this edition, the Economic Development Division was assisted by the Statistics and Economic
Projections Division, the ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico and Port of Spain, and the Commission’s country offices in
Bogota, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Washington, D.C.
The regional analyses were prepared by the following experts (in the order in which the subjects are presented): Osvaldo
Kacef, with the assistance of Rafael López Monti (introduction), Juan Pablo Jiménez (fiscal policy), Rodrigo Cárcamo (exchangerate
policy), Omar Bello (monetary policy), Sandra Manuelito (economic activity and investment and domestic prices), Jürgen Weller
(employment and wages), and Luis Felipe Jiménez and Sarah Mueller (external sector). The text boxes were prepared by Claudio
Aravena, Andrea Podestá and Claudia Roethlisberger, as well as Ricardo Zapata, Sergio Saldaña, Myriam Urzúa and Asha
Kambon.
The country notes are based on studies conducted by the following experts: Dillon Alleyne (Guyana and Jamaica), Omar
Bello (Plurinational State of Bolivia), Fernando Cantú (Ecuador), Rodrigo Cárcamo (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela), Stefan
Edwards (Suriname), Álvaro Fuentes (Uruguay), Randolph Gilbert (Haiti), Michael Hendrickson (Bahamas and Belize), Daniel
Heymann and Adrián Ramos (Argentina), Luis Felipe Jiménez (Chile), Beverly Lugay (Eastern Caribbean Monetary Union), Roberto
Machado (Trinidad and Tobago), Sandra Manuelito (Peru), Jorge Mattar and Indira Romero (Mexico), Juan Carlos Moreno
(Panama), Sarah Mueller (Paraguay), Carlos Mussi (Brazil), Ramón Padilla (Costa Rica and Nicaragua), Igor Paunovic (Cuba and
Honduras), Willard Phillips (Barbados), Juan Carlos Ramírez, Olga Lucía Acosta, María and Alejandra Botiva (Colombia), Juan
Carlos Rivas (Guatemala) and Francisco Villareal (El Salvador and Dominican Republic). Claudia Roethlisberger coordinated the
notes on the Caribbean countries. The economic projections were produced by Claudio Aravena, Fernando Cantú and Sandra
Manuelito. Alejandra Acevedo, Vianka Aliaga, Leandro Cabello, Jazmín Chiu, Hans Fricke, Rafael López Monti and Karen Martínez
were responsible for the processing and presentation of the statistical data and graphical presentations.

In response to the crisis, the countries of the American continent have unveiled various sorts of measures, which are outlined in this document. Broadly speaking, those measures aim either to restore confidence and unlock financial markets or to bolster weakened aggregate demand.

The Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) operating in the Caribbean have crafted responses designed to assist their member countries in dealing with the global financial and economic crisis. This document outlines the programmes that have been put in place by each institution. As the nature of the programmes is determined by the effect of the crisis on the countries, a summary of the impact of the crisis is first provided.