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Economic Bulletin for Latin America ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA ECONOMIC BULLETIN FOR LATIN AMERICA Volume Xn, No. 2 UNITED NATIONS New York, 1968 UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION Sales No.: E.68. II.G. 5 Price $U.S. 2.50 (or equivalent in other currencies) United Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nations Publications, New York or Geneva. Subscriptions should be placed with: United Nations Publications United Nations Publications United Nations Palais des Nations Room 1059 Geneva New York, N.Y. 10017 Switzerland U.S.A. CONTENTS Page Introduction v Planning in Latin America 1 Planning and plan implementation in Latin America 18 Discussion and resolution on development planning at the twelfth session of the Commission 33 Income distribution in Latin America 38 The economic policy of Bolivia in 1952-64 61 The economic policy of Colombia in 1950-66 90 The measurement of Latin American real income in U.S. dollars 107 Recent activities of ECLA Twelfth session of the Economic Commission for Latin America 143 111 The Economic Bulletin for Latin America has been published by the secretariat of the Economic Conunission for Latin America twice yearly since 1956. The essential purpose of this periodical is to provide a résumé of the economic situation of the region designed to supplement and bring up to date the information published in the Commission's annual economic surveys. Apart from this summary, which is to appear in every issue, special articles on different subjects related to the economy of Latin America are included, as well as informative and methodological notes. The ECLA secretariat assumes entire responsibility for the Bulletin. Its content—intended for the information both of public officials and of the general reader—was not submitted to the Commission's member Governments before publication. Since October 1958 the Bulletin has regularly included a Statistical Supplement. This sub- sequently became large enough to warrant separate publication, one issue being published in 1960, another in 1961 and two in 1962, each being bilingual with the corresponding table of contents. Since 1964, a new publication, the Statistical Bulletin for Latin America, has been issued twice a year, to provide the public with a regular flow of statistical data on economic matters. EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS Three dots (...) indicate that data are not available or are not separately reported. A dash (—) indicates that the amount is nil or negligible. A minus sign (—300) indicates a deficit or a decrease. A stroke {/) indicates a crop year or a fiscal year, e.g., 1954/55. An asterisk (*) is used to indicate partially or totally estimated figures. "Tons" and "dollars" are metric tons and United States dollars, respectively, unless otherwise stated. Minor discrepancies in totals and percentages are due to rounding. XV INTRODUCTION Planning, income distribution and economic ion reflected by the resolution adopted at policy rank high among the subjects with which ECLA's twelfth session. The papers indicate ECLA is perennially concerned. Different as- that there is a substantial measure of agreement pects of these questions are studied from time between the diagnosis of the situation and the to time, from a conceptual or methodological recommendations made by regional and inter- standpoint or in relation to specific cases. It is national experts and the representatives of the hoped in this way to build up a store of useful Latin American Governments. source material for economic decision-making The Bulletin also includes an ECLA secre- which will shed further light on the long-term tariat note originally submitted to the twelfth implications of the policies being implemented. session of the Commission suggesting a series This issue of the Bulletin has been devoted of hypotheses concerning the nature of the prob- to an examination of these three questions. It lems of income distribution in Latin America. includes a review of the most recent evaluation The analysis is based mainly on the studies of the planning process in Latin America, it prepared on Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, and summarizes the findings and conclusions of the the fragmentary data available on other coun- ECLA secretariat's research on income distribu- tries. From this body of information, conclu- tion and it reviews some of the effects of the sions have been drawn concerning the rela- economic policy followed since the fifties by tionship between economic growth and income two Latin American countries: Bolivia and distribution. Colombia. The third section offers an analysis of eco- The section on planning reproduces three nomic policy in Bolivia and Colombia in the documents. The first is an ECLA secretariat light of their long-term development, which is paper on the present state of planning in Latin comparable in its methodology and objectives America, with special reference to the difficul- to the economic policy studies of Brazil and ties of plan implementation. The paper was Chile.^ In this analysis, a special effort has used as a background document for the dis- been made to distinguish the main policy aims cussions on this question at the second session and objectives and to determine how policy of the United Nations Committee for Develop- instruments are being used to achieve them. The ment Planning (Santiago, Chile, 10-20 April cases of Bolivia and Colombia were chosen for 1967) and at the twelfth session of ECLA different reasons: the first because of the in- (Caracas, 2-13 May 1967). It is followed by terest naturally aroused by the economic policy die relevant portion of the report of the Com- model instituted as a result of the 1952 revolu- mittee, which examines the role of planning and tion, which changed the structure of the economy Latin America's experience in plan implementa- and has largely shaped its present characteristics. tion. The third document contains a résumé of Colombia's experience is interesting for some the debates on planning in Latin America at the novel features it displays, chiefly the original twelfth session of the Commission and the text and efficient use made of policy instruments. of the resolution adopted on that subject. In short, these countries, together with Brazil Although the substance of all three papers is and Chile, offer a wide range of experience in closely related and may even seem repetitive in terms of different economic policy aims, the certain aspects, it was considered useful to pub- use made of certain instruments and their lish them together in view of the high technical ability to achieve the desired goals. standing of the Committee, which is composed of economists from the different regions of the '^Economic Survey of Latín America, 1964 (United world, and of the wide range of political opin- Nations publication, Sales No.: 66.ILG.1) pp. 288-315. PLANNING IN LATIN AMERICA* I. PAST HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF PLANNING ACTIVITIES IN LATIN AMERICA 1. PAST HISTORY groundwork and provide a methodological tool for the preparations of plans. The need for a development planning policy has only recently been recognized in Latin Bolivia, Chile and Colombia were the first America as the result of a combination of in- Latin American countries in this decade to for- ternal and external factors. mulate national development plans and to estab- lish the necessary machinery, largely with the During the forties, the need to enlarge the help of international technical assistance. How- economic infrastructure, particularly the trans- ever, it was not until the Punta del Este Con- port network and power supply, and adapt it ference in 1961 that the Latin American Gov- to new development conditions, as well as to ernments recognized that planning should be encourage relatively large-scale projects in key the fundamental instrument for mobilizing na- industries led to the preparation and imple- tional resources, bringing about necessary struc- mentation of some partial programmes de- tural changes, enhancing efficiency and pro- pendent mainly on public investment. ductivity and securing more international Subsequently, particularly towards the end financial co-operation. of the fifties, it became increasingly apparent that the Latin American economies lacked the Since then, virtually all the Latin American necessary dynamism to maintain moderately countries have prepared plans of different kinds satisfactory rates of growth, to remedy critical and scope. At the same time, the plans have imbalances in their foreign trade and external been analysed and assessed by regional organs financing, to contain inflationary pressures, to which have helped to sustain planning efforts provide sufficient productive employment for a by bringing them into line with the volume and rapidly increasing labour force, and to im- orientation of foreign financial assistance. prove living conditions and at the same time A valuable fund of experience has thus been fulfil rising expectations created by a knowl- built up, but its true significance may be hard to edge of the tremendous possibilities brought appreciate because planning is a relatively re- about by technological advances. Economic pol- cent phenomenon and began in very special icy thus came to hinge on development in its circumstances. Until fairly recently, no experi- most comprehensive sense as an economic and ence had been obtained in this field, apart from social concept encompassing both internal and some preliminary experiments and certain sec- external limitations. Furthermore, ECLA, whose toral programmes, and the very idea of plan- objectives are to analyse the development prob- ning was resisted. There were no background lems of Latin America, and suggest technical data on which to draw for planning purposes, norms for a development programme and meth- and no methodology that had already proved its ods of projecting future needs, helped to instil worth in the particular circumstances of Latin that more comprehensive outlook.
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