LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 24 September 2018

* The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has released a new report on government spending, which found that Argentina has the highest level of inefficient government spending in Latin America. According to the report, the level of inefficient government spending (identified as spending on officials’ salaries and on inefficient state subsidies) in Argentina is equivalent to 7.2% of its GDP, well above the regional average of 4.4% of GDP. In particular the report noted that Argentina has the third-largest proportion of government employees in the region behind Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, which accounts for 30% of total government spending, equivalent to 12% of its GDP. The release of the report comes just as the Argentine government led by President Mauricio Macri is trying to secure approval for an austere 2019 national budget in which it plans to significantly reduce government spending to eliminate the fiscal deficit and restore market confidence in the Argentine economy. 

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