States that spent more on health and infrastructure, and to support families and businesses, were the ones that achieved the fastest recovery, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) revealed on a press release.

In this regard, the UN agency highlighted the establishment of subsidies, as well as direct monetary and in-kind transfers.

Assessments on the subject are included in the study “Countercyclical Fiscal Policy in the Pandemic and its Economic Impact on Central America and the Dominican Republic,” by experts Juan Carlos Rivas and Jesus Santamaria.

The document points to unequal public spending in different countries, but the overall outcome in the sub-region was positive and should be noticed in the long run.

Active fiscal policies during the pandemic helped to ramp up the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in all the cases analyzed, albeit with different levels, according to the publication released by ECLAC in Havana.

This was more evident, the document notes, in the economies where government spending was better linked to the country’s economic evolution.

However, the study recommends raising investments in health infrastructure and other social items as part of the boom cycle featured by the economies of Central America and the Dominican Republic.

In view of a lower economic cycle or the emergence of internal or external shocks, those countries would not have to face larger deficits or higher debt with higher costs, the study pointed out.

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