CNE – Centro Para Una Nueva Economía – Center for a New Economy
Non-profit, economic research and policy development organization
During the past two months, public debate in Puerto Rico has focused mostly on the impact of specific fiscal adjustment measures proposed by the Fiscal Control Board (“FCB”) in its January 18 letter to Governor Roselló and by the Rosselló administration in its February 28 Fiscal Plan.
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law that created the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The President was eloquent in his description of the objectives of the law:
We are writing in response to the request for “stakeholder input” issued by the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico (the “Task Force”), which was established pursuant to Section 409 of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”).1
We are writing in response to the request for “stakeholder input” issued by the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico (the “Task Force”), which was established pursuant to Section 409 of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”).1
El pasado 15 de junio de 2016 CNE retomó públicamente el tema con la presentación de “Devising a Growth Strategy for Puerto Rico”, un informe elaborado junto al Initiative for Policy Dialogue de la Universidad de Columbia que comienza a esbozar los lineamientos de una nueva política industrial para la isla. ¿En qué consiste la propuesta de CNE? Escucha CNE Unplugged, donde reproducimos el audio de la exposición que hicieron los tres autores del informe ante la prensa.
Puerto Rico experimenta una de las peores recesiones que se han registrado en el mundo durante la pasada década, segunda solo a la de Grecia que acumuló una caída de 28% en su Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) entre 2007-2015. La contracción de la economía de Puerto Rico comenzó en 2006 (antes que la crisis financiera de 2007 en EEUU) y ha ocasionado una reducción cumulativa de 14% del Producto Nacional Bruto (PNB) de la isla. Es por esto que se podría decir que la economía de Puerto Rico ha experimentado ya una “década perdida”.
The Puerto Rican economy has already experienced a “lost decade”—to use the term that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC, coined in the 1980s for Latin America and that has been widely used at the international level since then—and, if no action is adopted soon, it will continue on a negative path for the foreseeable future.
“During the past several months, CNE has invested a significant amount of time in sharing our knowledge on the complexities of the fiscal and economic situation of Puerto Rico with those members and staff of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate who have been working on the island’s fiscal crisis in Washington DC. We have stressed the urgency of addressing Puerto Rico’s fiscal situation and we have proposed well-thought and balanced alternatives to address the immediate problem of the debt overhang, transform Puerto Rico’s fiscal institutions, and spearhead a process to reactivate economic growth.”
