The Caribbean and Latin America have posted positive economic gains for a sixth consecutive year, despite the global economic downturn, a United Nations agency said last week.

Regional gross domestic product (GDP) is growing at a rate of about five per cent, according to the latest Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) report.

The report also said while economic growth for 2008 is unlikely to match the nearly six per cent expansion recorded last year, GDP per capita is forecast to grow three per cent in the region, for a fifth consecutive year, marking the first time this has happened in four decades.

Unemployment fallen

The 'Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2007-2008, Macroeconomic policy and volatility' also noted that unemployment has steadily fallen every year since 2003, decreasing from eight per cent in 2007 to an estimated 7.5 per cent this year.

ECLAC said the poverty rate also dropped, slashed by over nine per cent since 2002, on the back of economic growth, falling joblessness, higher quality employment and improved non-wage income, such as remittances.

ECLAC said the region will not be immune to the current global market turmoil, but will be better able to weather the storm due to its economic strength.

"Thanks to GDP surpluses, the area's governments have been able to earmark more resources for public investment and social spending, as well as create bulwarks in case of economic turbulence in the future," it said.

Additionally, the region's countries have substantially cut back their public debt, dropping from 36 per cent of GDP in 2006 to 33 per cent of GDP last year, ECLAC said.

However, the report cautioned that rising inflation rates, as well as soaring food and oil prices, could slow the region's "stellar growth", which it predicted will continue next year, albeit at a slower pace of four per cent.