Like a wild rollercoaster, steep ups and downs describe the economic performance of the Latin American and Caribbean region.1 Econom ic booms have been followed by deep and long recessions, sometimes driven by poor domestic policies, other times precipitated by negative exogenous shocks, often times fueled by both. Notwithstanding considerable progress since the notorious lost decade of the 1980s, managing volatile economic cycles remains an important policy challenge for most countries in the region.
