ABSTRACT
Paraguay today faces a huge challenge to successfully confront the twin problems of lack of good jobs and poverty/inequality. Strong healthy growth is a central requirement of poverty reduction. Along the spectrum of national growth rates in developing countries over the last couple of decades—from about 2 percent to about 10 percent—Paraguay ranks close to the bottom. In addition, the pattern of its growth has been employment-displacing more than employment creating. The recovery from the 1999-2002 recession is not a precursor of continuing fast pro-poor growth; the growth rate has been modest and the pattern of growth has not been pro-poor.
