Guatemala: Economic and Social Position and Prospects

摘要

The growth of the Guatemalan economy has averaged 5.7% per year since 1960, which was about the same as the average for Latin America as a whole. Vital to this growth, especially in the 1960s, was Guatemala's participation in the Central American Common Market and the incentives offered to stimulate industrial development within this regional grouping. Despite the substantial economic growth in recent years, social development has lagged. Guatemala has a heritage of two cultures--Spanish and Indian--and large part because of the very limited role played by the public sector in the nation's development, the gap between these two large ethnic groups in terms of per capita income, health and education has not been reduced to any significant extent over the past twenty years.