Latin American economic outlook. 2013 : SME policies for structural change / Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Includes bibliographical references.

Preface; Acknowledgements; Acronyms and abbreviations; Executive summary; Chapter 1: Macroeconomic overview; Introduction; The economic situation in Latin America and the international environment; Short-term impacts; Macroeconomic policy spaces; The medium-term international environment and its impact on the region; Conclusions and recommendations; Chapter 2: Traits and policies of Latin American SMEs; Introduction; Regional overview of SMEs; The economic context in which firms operate; Changes in development policies; The institutional context of policies; Objectives and strategies.

Design and implementationConclusions and recommendations: towards a new visionof policies for SMEs; Chapter 3: Financing SMEs in Latin America; Introduction; Trends in the financing of SMEs in Latin America; Development of the financial system in Latin America: the funding gap; The role of public financial institutions in financing SMEs; Improving credit and financing for SMEs in the region: trends and innovative instruments; Conclusions and recommendations; Annex 3.A1. Financial structure of companies in LatinAmerica: working capital, fixed assets and collateral.

Chapter 4: SMEs, innovation and technological developmentIntroduction; Innovation in the regional context; Innovations and SMEs: activities, strengths and weaknesses; ICTs in Latin American SMEs: access and adoption; Conclusions and recommendations: institutional structureand policies for innovation and the dissemination of technology; Annex 4.A1. Policies directly affecting business innovation in SMEs; Chapter 5: Human capital and skills for SMEs; Introduction; SMEs' training challenge; Regional overview of technical education and vocationaltraining for SMEs.

Towards a human-capital training strategy for SMEs:conclusions and public-policy recommendationsChapter 6: Production linkages, clusters and global value chains: seeking answers for SMEs; Introduction; Production context, performance of exports, and SMEs'productivity in Latin America; Production linkage: a course of action to improve SMEs'production performance and competitiveness; Towards greater complexity in associative strategies:insertion of partnership approaches into global value chains; Outcomes and lessons from the experiences in Latin America.

Latin America has weathered the recent turbulence in the global economy with relative strength, but the region now faces - beyond the short-term global uncertainty -- important medium-term risks. Policy makers need to make use of the policy space at their disposal to lay the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth. . SMEs play a key role as they are an integral part of the economic fabric, comprising over 95% of firms in the region as well as providing employment for over 60% of the region's inhabitants. Nevertheless, relative to SMEs in the OECD, on average SMEs in Latin America exh.