The main challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean region in the post-financial crisis era is to balance sustainable public finance and consistent social investment, a senior official of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has said.

"Once the emergency is over, exit strategies from the crisis must foresee double challenges: fiscal responsibility and sustainability of the public debt on the one hand, and consistent public investment and social expenses on the other," ECLAC Deputy Executive Secretary Antonio Prado said Tuesday.

During the inauguration of the 22nd Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy, Prado said that to face the recent crisis, many countries used transitory fiscal deficits to achieve macroeconomic stability through big fiscal stimulus packages.

The countries now have to manage public debt and at the same time to sustain and increase social spending to maintain employment and reduce social costs of the crisis, he said.

"Reduction of poverty and distribution of incomes will not be improved in the region without proactive fiscal policies that raise the quality and equity-effects of the markets," he added.

The Seminar is organized by the ECLAC and supported by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the German Development Agency GTZ and the Chilean Ministry of Finance.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2010)