The debt crisis that the Latin American economies experienced during the 1980s led to a decline of 0.9 per year of per capita GDP, a "lost decade" in terms of economic growth This experience shocked the region, as per capita GDP had increased by 2.7 percent annually from 1950 to 1980. This earlier growth had been based on development patterns characterized by high protection of domestic markets and strong state intervention. Despite rapid growth and industrialization, orthodox analysts considered these policies a source of inefficiencies, macroeconomic imbalances and a major cause of the debt crisis. With external pressure but also growing internal political support, Latin America embraced structural economic reform in the late 1980s and early 1990s aimed at reducing state intervention and exploiting the opportunities provided by international markets Reforms had thus the dual objective of overcoming the "lost decade" and the patterns of development that had prevailed prior the debt crisis.
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