Fiscal policies for the recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean

How can fiscal policies help in the recovery from the pandemic? What kinds of measures should be used to deal with the problem in terms of public revenue ? The “Public finance for development – public revenue in the COVID-19 context”  laboratory was held to analyse these issues. The initiative was organised by the Spanish Cooperation Training Centre (CFCE) in Montevideo and the Public Finance Line of Action of the European-funded European Union programme, EUROsociAL +, participated in the event .

During the event, the director of the CFCE in Montevideo, a centre dependent on the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, (AECID in Uruguay) highlighted that the laboratory is part of the joint response strategy used by Spanish cooperation to counter COVID19: “By exchanging knowledge, it sets out to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of fiscal policies to harmonise domestic resources and meet the demands of citizens without leaving anyone behind.”

Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, said that “it is a question of previewing criteria for enhancing tax administration and public revenue, particularly in a region with high tax evasion and low taxation.”

Juan Manuel Santomé, the director of EUROsociAL+, said that the way out of the crisis must be inclusive and focus on social cohesion: “Tax relief measures are necessary and the debate on tax exemptions must be resumed”.

Sonia González, coordinator of the EUROsociAL+ Democratic Governance Policies Area at FIIAPP, added that fiscal policy “is an excellent instrument for reducing inequality, and is therefore crucial for a Programme like EUROsociAL+ that promotes social cohesion. The fiscal pacts are the concrete face of the internal social pacts that must be reached within countries and this means that when analysing possible fiscal reforms, we must also reflect on the type of social welfare model we want.”