Progress

Despite the continuing nervousness about its politics, Latin America is making impressive economic progress. According to a report by the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America, the gross domestic product for the area's 19 nations (excluding Cuba) rose 5.5% to more than $90 billion in 1964, v. a 1.8% increase the year before. The big gains came from Mexico (up 10% chiefly on a construction boom), Venezuela (up 7.6% on record oil exports) and the nascent Central American Common Market, whose five members--Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua --averaged a 7% increase. Tugging the figures down were Brazil, which gained only 1.4% because of inflation; Uruguay, which gained only 1.1% thanks to a stagnating economy; and Panama, whose gross product decreased 1.5% owing to a multitude of woes.

The general 5.5% growth is not all gravy. Latin America's population increased 3% last year, thus cutting the per-capita increase to 2.5%. Still, that figure is right on the button with the Alianza's targeted rate and is more than twice the average 1.1% pace that prevailed from 1950 to 1963.

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