ABSTRACT
The macroeconomic climate of the two decades prior to the 21st century reflected significant turbulence, particularly in the area of price stability. From 1980 onward, Latin America underwent radical inflationary spirals, associated with the twin crises of public debt and balance of payments. This led to the 1980s being called the “lost decade of Latin America.” The significant economic costs of recession and recovery notwithstanding, there were significant lessons learned that, in fact, were and are applied, and these have a lot to do with the relative macroeconomic stability that today characterizes most of the countries of the region. Nowhere was the progress made more striking than in the area of inflation.
