The World Bank's Bad Business in Uruguay
The World Bank Behind Business Reforms in Uruguay
In the years following the 2001 economic crisis, the World Bank has used Uruguay as the poster child of an economy that has become stronger after following its development model. The Bank pushed for financial sector changes, including developing capital markets (the buying and selling of long term debt and other mechanisms) to improve the investment climate in the country. At the 88th position out of 189 countries, Uruguay enjoys a “good” score in the 2014 World Bank Doing Business rankings. This ranking reflects Uruguay’s efforts to follow the directives of the Bank’s investment climate team, which provides advisory services to the country. The current 2010-2015 strategy of the World Bank aims to help Uruguay further reform its economy and deliver greater competiveness. One key pillar of the Country Partnership Strategy is to provide financial support for export-oriented agribusiness. It includes a Bank lending program of approximately $700 million, together with an active International Finance Corporation (IFC) program—private lending arm of the World Bank Group—and advisory services. All three of the IFC’s active investment projects in Uruguay are in export-oriented agribusiness companies.
OurBiz_Fact_Sheet_Uruguay.pdf OurBiz_Fact_Sheet_Uruguay_lowrez.pdf