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Finance Minister of Argentina calls markets to keep calm
January 13, 1999
The Finance minister of Argentina and Inter-American Development Bank governor, Roque B. Fernández, recommended patience for financial markets after the economic measures announced today by the government of Brazil.
In a speech to IDB directors and senior Bank management, Fernández said that reforms undertaken by Brazil "will bring positive results, because the Brazilian program is well designed and undertakes the structural reforms the country needs to accomplish."
This time, let's do it right
January 01, 1999
The overwhelming loss of life and material damage caused by Hurricane Mitch has produced an outpouring of international assistance. Some has been used to help people get through the immediate emergency. Far more will be used to rebuild the countries' devastated economies.
The worst in living memory
January 01, 1999
Most hurricanes vent their fury and then quickly move on. But Hurricane Mitch did its destructive work slowly. Traveling northwest across the Caribbean, skirting Jamaica and Cuba, its winds reached a peak of 157 knots on Oct. 26 just off the northeast coast of Honduras, making it one of the strongest storms of this century. It stayed at this intensity for the next 24 hours before beginning to weaken.
New records for charity
January 01, 1999
Human catastrophes in developing countries can claim only the briefest hold on the world's attention, if television news coverage is any indication.
But evidence of solidarity and concern for Hurricane Mitch's victims was visible long after news programs moved on to other stories. Thousands of tons of food, medicine and clothing, along with all manner of relief experts, were sent by governments in Asia, Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
A place to call home
January 01, 1999
"On the fourth day of rain we woke up and found our house split down the middle."
That's how Kenia Elisabeth Cruz, mother of two, remembers her last moments in a modest wood dwelling that Hurricane Mitch reduced to splintered planks. "Things started tearing apart," recalls her husband, Juan Carlos Cruz, a construction worker. "Walls were falling over and getting swept down the street. We ran out without taking a thing and went to a nearby school. We lost everything we owned."
Lessons learned or lessons lost?
January 01, 1999
It may have been the worst storm to hit Central America in living memory, but for Bruce Baird and many others, Hurricane Mitch provoked a vivid case of déjà vu.
Baird, a U.S. citizen who is today an expert in flood disaster prevention and relief, was leading a filmmaking expedition in Honduras in September 1974 when a freak storm hit the country's northern coast. Hurricane Fifi baffled meteorologists by "stalling" over Honduras, where it dumped 25 inches of rain in 24 hours and caused flooding and landslides that killed an estimated 8,000 people.
Thirst follows the flood
January 01, 1999
After punishing Honduras with too much rain, Hurricane Mitch perversely deprived the country of drinking water. The storm destroyed critical segments of Tegucigalpa's potable water system, leaving practically all of the city's 1.9 million residents without safe water for domestic use.
Farmers without soil
January 01, 1999
Manuel Hernández scrapes up a handful of dirt and shows a visitor how quickly it runs through his fingers.
Digital trade barriers
January 01, 1999
Imagine a small manufacturer of handpainted ceramic plates in the United States who has just clinched an important sale to a housewares retailer in England. The deal required five telephone calls to London, each four minutes long, that cost the manufacturer a total of $5.40.
New credits help to stem financial crisis
January 01, 1999
The policymaking committee of the IDB's Board of Governors set a his toric new course for the Bank in November by approving procedures by which the Bank will join with other multilateral institutions to counteract the negative effects of worldwide monetary speculation and volatile financial flows.