A global index that measures prosperity or well-being in 167 countries revealed that Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region where economies have deteriorated in the last 10 years.
In particular,
Argentina ranked seventh in the regional ranking, led by Chile and Uruguay.
On the other hand, in the general classification with all the countries included in the ranking, the country occupies position
58. In other words, it fell one position since 2011, according to the Prosperity Index, which is prepared every year by the Legatum Institute, a kind of "think tank" financed by a private investment fund that is based in London.
The ranking has been prepared for 16 years and analyzes numerous variables such as
the investment environment, the conditions for starting a business, infrastructure, living conditions, and medical care
, among others, in different countries.
In this year's results, Argentina performs
strongest in Social Capital and Personal Freedom, but is weakest in Business Conditions and Economic Quality
.
The biggest improvement compared to a decade ago was in Governance, according to this ranking.
What happened
in the world,
according to this index, is that
"global prosperity stagnated for the third consecutive year"
as a result of the weakening of institutions and economies, impacted to a large extent by the Russian-Ukrainian war.
However, in the world ranking, the first 10 countries that lead the table for being considered more prosperous were:
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Iceland, Germany, New Zealand.
The reality of
Latin America and the Caribbean runs in another lane: seven out of 25 countries saw their prosperity fall
and the biggest falls were those of
Brazil, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The regional ranking is led by Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, as the countries with the greatest progress.
And behind Argentina are Peru, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
While
Venezuela and Haiti, they remain in the last positions
of the list
.
“Governments in the region are becoming increasingly authoritarian, leading to deterioration of personal freedom and worsening governance, making them less effective and more corrupt.
There is also a deterioration in economic quality, with rising public debt, low growth and rising unemployment,” the Legatum report highlighted.
When specifically analyzing the variable or "pillar" of Economic Quality,
the greatest deterioration in the region was detected in Venezuela, Suriname and Bolivia.
Another
of the characteristics that the region experienced, according to this study, is that it saw an increase in government debts, also low economic growth and an increase in unemployment.
For example: youth unemployment went from 13.9% to 21.7%;
public debt went from 44.8% to 79.5% and labor productivity (annual) decreased by US$ 1,000 over 10 years.
As a counterpart, in the region
there were improvements in areas that are easy to correct with technology and investment
.
Thus, Infrastructure and Market Access were the segments that improved the most in countries like Honduras, Panama and Paraguay.
Among other conclusions about the global behavior of countries, the report highlights that "although
the world's least prosperous countries are improving, they are not catching up with the rest of the world
. For example: In six of the 12 "pillars" In the Prosperity Index, the bottom 40 countries have deteriorated while, on average, the rest of the world improved.While the group saw improvements in some areas, progress was not fast enough to catch up with the rest.
NS