ECONOMIC theory suggests that poor countries should, over time, converge towards the income levels of advanced economies. While that has happened in East Asia and Central Europe, Latin America still lags behind. Since 1960, only a few countries in the region have managed to narrow the gap between their per capita income and that of the United States – and even in those cases, the gains have been small.

As we explain in a new report for the Group of Thirty (G30), there is no single cause for Latin American economies’ mediocre growth over the decades.

In some countries – such as Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela – there will be little to no sustained growth until policymakers address serious outstanding fiscal, debt and (in some cases) inflation problems.