Liliana Rojas-Suarez
Senior Fellow and Director of the Latin America Initiative
Topics:
Expertise
Macroeconomic policy, international economics, financial markets, Latin America, regional public goods
Bio
Liliana Rojas-Suarez is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development with expertise on Latin America, financial regulation, Basel II and III and the development impact of global financial flows. She is the co-author or editor of almost a dozen books. Her most recent book is Growing Pains in Latin America: An Economic Growth Framework as Applied to Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. She also co-chaired the CGD Working Group on “Policy Principles for Expanding Financial Access”.
She is also the chair of the Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF). From March 1998 to October 2000, she served as managing director and chief economist for Latin America at Deutsche Bank. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Rojas-Suarez was the principal advisor in the Office of Chief Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. Between 1984-1994 she held various positions at the International Monetary Fund, most recently as deputy chief of the Capital Markets and Financial Studies Division of the Research Department. She has been a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a visiting advisor at the Bank for International Settlements and has also served as a professor at Anahuac University in Mexico and advisor for PEMEX, Mexico’s National Petroleum Company. Rojas-Suarez has also testified before a Joint Committee of the US Senate on the issue of dollarization in Latin America.
She has published widely in the areas of macroeconomic policy, international economics and financial markets in a large number of academic and other journals including Journal of International Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Contemporary Economic Policy, International Monetary Fund Staff Papers. She has also published or being cited in prestigious newspapers such as the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. She is also regularly interviewed by CNN en Español.
She was recently awarded the prize “The Economist of the year,” granted by the Peruvian Chamber of Commerce.
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Media Contact
Holly Shulman
hshulman@cgdev.org
In the News
April 11, 2018
Working Groups
High-res photo
More From Liliana Rojas-Suarez
May 16, 2018
Event
Economic recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is gaining momentum, but more work is needed to ensure growth is both sustainable and inclusive. Looking ahead, activity is expected to gather further momentum—reflecting stronger demand at home and a supportive external environment. But there are still challenges ahead. Risks to the region’s outlook reflect internal factors as well as heightened external risks—notably, a shift towards more protectionist policies and a sudden tightening of global financial conditions. Additionally, longer-term growth prospects for Latin America and the Caribbean remain subdued.
April 19, 2018
Event
Most countries in Latin America are currently reporting fiscal deficits and many have increased their external debt ratios. This has refocused attention on whether the region’s resilience to external shocks has deteriorated, and it has raised questions about Latin America’s ability to reignite growth and support development efforts.
April 10, 2018
Event
Since the early 2000s, Latin America has become increasingly integrated with the global economy, liberalizing trade and opening its capital account. These initiatives were prompted by the assumption that advanced economies would not impose barriers to the cross-border movement of goods and services. But today, a rising wave of protectionism not seen since the Great Depression challenges this assumption.
With this new reality as the backdrop, the Latin American Committee on Macroeconomic and Financial Issues (CLAAF) will be meeting in Washington, DC to discuss how to tackle these emerging global economic challenges. Members of this committee include former finance ministers, former central bank governors, and other high-level economic officials and academics from across Latin America.
March 19, 2018
Blog Post
Often overshadowed by the regional powerhouses that border it, Paraguay’s recent sovereign bond issuance of $530 million was five times oversubscribed, revealing that the landlocked country of 7.5 million people warrants more attention.
Pages
May 8, 2014
Publication
This paper identifies and discusses the conditions needed for achieving strong and stable capital markets in emerging market economies, which at present remain illiquid and underdeveloped.
December 14, 2017
Blog Post
What's going to happen in the world of development in 2018? Will we finally understand how to deal equitably with refugees and migrants? Or how technological progress can work for developing countries? Or what the impact of year two of the Trump Administration will be? Today’s podcast, our final episode of 2017, raises these questions and many more as a multitude of CGD scholars share their insights and hopes for the year ahead.
April 4, 2017
Publication
A rise in protectionism and increased external uncertainty may compound already existing domestic weaknesses. Latin America cannot run the risk of being unprepared for the significant potential direct and indirect effects of such a menace to its exports, capital inflows and growth.
March 22, 2016
Publication
As recently as 2011, only 42 percent of adult Kenyans had a financial account of any kind; by 2014, according to the Global Findex, database that number had risen to 75 percent. In sub-Saharan Africa, the share of adults with financial accounts rose by nearly half over the same period. Many other developing countries have also recorded gains in access to basic financial services. Much of this progress is being facilitated by the digital revolution of recent decades, which has led to the emergence of new financial services and new delivery channels.
May 19, 2015
Publication
This paper analyzes the relevance, advantages and challenges that the Chilean financial system would face if the new international standard were implemented.
June 3, 2014
Event
A slowdown in China’s growth is a serious concern for Latin America, especially for those countries that have benefited from a record-setting boom in commodity prices since 2003. Much of the slowdown is due to structural reforms in China, partly prompted by the tepid and uncertain recovery of its large trade partners, namely, the US and EU.
Lurking in the background, however, is growing concern about possible macroeconomic instability due to China’s domestic credit boom, which has been accompanied by the emergence of unregulated and fast growing “shadow banks.” A disruption of the banking system cannot be ruled out and could result in a major growth contraction in China.
How big is this risk? And what are the implications for Latin America? What are the advantages of China’s financial expansion in the region, and how can policymakers make the most of these, while minimizing the risks?
The upcoming meeting of the Latin America Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, CLAAF, will explore these questions by addressing the following topics:
• Should Latin American policymakers be delighted or concerned about the increasing presence of Chinese banks in the region? • What are the financial channels of contagion from China to Latin America? If there is a Chinese credit crunch, will the US—Latin America’s other major market—become entangled? • Are there lessons for China from Latin America regarding the sequencing of financial liberalization and the resolution of financial troubles?
Pages
October 26, 2017
Publication
This paper constructs an index of regulatory quality for improving financial inclusion for the purpose of assessing and comparing the quality of rules and regulations in a sample of eight Latin American countries.
February 28, 2017
Publication
This paper addresses four misconceptions (or ‘myths’) that have likely played a role in the limited utilization of the IMF’s two precautionary credit lines, the Flexible Credit Line (FCL) and the Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL). These myths are 1) too stringent qualification criteria that limit country eligibility; 2) insufficient IMF resources; 3) high costs of precautionary borrowing; and 4) the economic stigma associated with IMF assistance. We show, in fact, that the pool of eligible member states is likely to be seven to eight times larger than the number of current users; that with the 2016 quota reform IMF resources are more than adequate to support a larger precautionary portfolio; that the two IMF credit lines are among the least costly and most advantageous instruments for liquidity support countries have; and that there is no evidence of negative market developments for countries now participating in the precautionary lines.
October 20, 2016
Publication
In spite of recent progress in the usage of alternative financial services by adult populations, Latin America’s financial inclusion gaps have not reduced, relatively to comparable countries, and, in some cases, have even increased during the period 2011-2014. Institutional weaknesses play the most salient role through direct and indirect effects. Lack of enforcement of the rule of law directly reduces depositors’ incentives to entrust their funds to formal financial institutions. Indirectly, low institutional quality reinforces the adverse effects of insufficient bank competition on financial inclusion.
November 20, 2015
Publication
This paper investigates the shifts in Latin American banks’ funding patterns in the post-global financial crisis period. To this end, we introduce a new measure of exposure of local banking systems to international debt markets that we term: International Debt Issuances by Locally Supervised Institutions. In contrast to well-known BIS measures, our new metric includes all entities that fall under the supervisory purview of the local authority.
May 20, 2014
Publication
This paper analyzes Latin America’s Financial Inclusion Gap, the difference between the average financial inclusion for Latin America and the corresponding average for a set of comparator countries.
March 19, 2013
Publication
A number of Andean countries stand out in their successful use of macroprudential financial regulations. This paper focuses on three: countercyclical capital requirements, countercyclical loan-loss provisioning requirements, and liquidity requirements.
March 19, 2013
Publication
This paper discusses the potential usefulness of implementing macroprudential approach in Central America.
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