By Alfonso Fernandez.

Washington, Apr 15 (EFE).– The World Bank said Wednesday that the economic slowdown in Latin America could become “permanent” if structural reforms are not made to adapt the growth model to an international scenario in which China will also slow down economically and the prices of raw materials will remain at low levels.

“In the absence of growth-friendly structural reform, this situation firmly points in the direction of an also permanent growth slowdown for the region, with rates that would be insufficient to support significant social progress,” said World Bank chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean Augusto de la Torre at a press conference.

He gave the Mexican government as an example, saying that it had put into place reforms that are affecting key sectors like telecommunications, energy and education and are placing the country in a better position than the rest of the nations in the region.

Mexico’s 3 percent growth rate is solid but not outstanding, he said. For a “mature” economy like Mexico, that is not bad, but the country wants to be growing at 4 percent or more, De la Torre said, adding that the Mexican economy has had “the bad luck” to have to deal with the precipitous drop in oil prices.

Despite that, he insisted that one of the problems is impatience and the demand for immediate results. He said that reforms take time to work and patience must become part of the prevailing attitude in Latin America.

The World Bank divides Latin America into several areas, with the Central American countries and Mexico being in the “strong” growth group. Panama, for instance, will grow this year by 6.3 percent, Nicaragua by 4.8 percent, and the Dominican Republic joins that group with a projected growth rate of 4.7 percent.

Then, there are South American economies that are slowing down but with comfortable cushions that should enable them to weather the storm, including Bolivia with 4.5 percent growth, Colombia with 3.6 percent and Ecuador with 2.4 percent.

Finally, the economies that are contracting include Argentina with -0.4 percent growth, Brazil with -0.7 percent and Venezuela with -5.3 percent, all of them significantly affected by the decline in commodity prices.

He said that the fiscal adjustment plan launched by the authorities is the right move, given that a “lack of confidence” is the main problem facing the economy, but it has “exhausted” the growth model based mainly on consumption.

In general, the challenge for the region now, after a decade of bonanza, is to adapt to a “new normal” with China growing at less than 7 percent and oil and other commodity prices not returning to their former levels. EFE