This is

is CBS I on the world, the New World Report with Professor Avenelis of the U.S. Army War College looking at the Americas here at the beginning of 2024.

And there's no better way to look at the prospects than to consider a document just now from

the World Bank about Latin America and the Caribbean growth prospects and worries in the year ahead.

Professor, the overall from the World Bank is that the region looks to have growth from 2.2 to 2.3 percent. That's

significant and then again higher in 2025. This is the region, a vast region, with different governances and

different troubles. Hence our discussion about Ecuador, but there are other

countries that are growing. In general, the question the World Bank raises is trouble in other areas of the world,

other parts of the world. They mention the Middle East can trouble America's chiefly to do with energy prices and the customers.

We know that Zill needs the fertilizer of Russia and that was interrupted by the war in Ukraine.

However, this is the first time I've read a summary of the World Bank about a region.

How does this look to you, having read a number of these over the years?

Is the World Bank disposed to, well at college they call it great inflation, to put on a rosy face at the beginning of the year? Or are they hard number people who make it very clear that Latin America could be doing better?

How do they write this year to year?

Well, John, this annual report by the World Bank Global Economic Prospects is one of a series of reports

that multilateral organizations both internationally and focused on the region do.

The Inter-American Development Bank does a series of reports.

The United Nations-Eclack organization does reports.

And again, they're all regarded as relatively objective and incredible.

And so for investors and others, this is a authoritative look,

country by country and across the region of growth prospects and also relative trends in risks.

And as we pointed out, the picture that's painted is lukewarm, again talking about

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