Daniel Chavez Moran: Economic Outlook for 2011

As a young man in Mexico with a degree in civil engineering from the Universidad de Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Daniel Chavez Moran dreamt of building a successful international business. Three decades later, Chavez Moran is now retired, having successfully developed five-star hotels and resorts, golf courses, vacation ownership resorts and tourism infrastructure throughout Latin America. His passion and interest in economic and social development continues through his philanthropic work with the non-profit Vidanta Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to promote scholarship in the social sciences and culture, to promote intra-Latin America relations, and to influence the formulation of public policies that strengthen democracy and economic sustainability for the future of Latin America.

Chavez Moran follows international economic trends and notes this recent analysis of the debt crisis now facing the United States as published by Reuters news service:

Role reversal: Latin America taunts U.S. on debt woes

(Reuters) - After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfreude and fear of what a collapse might mean for them.

For everybody from presidents on down to street vendors, seeing U.S. politicians argue over where to make painful budget cuts has also been a reminder that those days are over in Latin America. For now, at least, as most of the region enjoys an era of economic prosperity and comparatively tiny deficits.

...These days, Latin America's economy as a whole is expected to expand about 4.7 percent in 2011 -- almost twice the expected rate in the United States -- thanks to strong demand for the region's commodities and a decade of mostly prudent fiscal management, itself the product of many hard-learned lessons of the past.

Related posts: Daniel Chavez Moran on partnering for progress and Daniel Chavez Moran on the path to Mexico's future.