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Poverty levels

• Regional growth is up over the past two years, but is still too low to make strong inroads into poverty reduction.
• In this region, where 2002 poverty rates were lower than other developing regions, the rate of poverty reduction has been slower—less than one percentage point between 2002-2005.
• In 2005 the region’s middle-income countries grew more than three percent, likely supported by better macroeconomic policies. However, the few low-income countries in the region grew more slowly than low-income countries overall.

Infrastructure

In Latin America, both coverage and quality of infrastructure have seen sustained improvements in the last decade.

However, these improvements have not yet yielded the expected growth payoff. Signs of under investment are emerging, causing concerns the region may lag further behind in competitiveness.