Trends in social spending between 1990 and 2001

The effort that has been under way for more than a decade to achieve a steady increase in public spending in the social sectors is one of the outstanding features of development in the vast majority of the Latin American countries. As a result of this effort, the per capita resources allocated to education, health, housing and social security have increased by about 60% in real terms and their share of region–wide GDP has risen by almost four percentage points. Even though the region’s economic growth has slowed considerably and become more volatile in the past five years, per capita social spending continued to increase until 2001, although at a lower rate than in the initial years of the past decade.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Gender Equality

Reduced Inequalities

Sustainable Cities and Communities