Promising practices in rural finance: Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean

Financial markets play an important role in economic development and growth.Countries with faster rates of economic growth tend to have financial markets thatare deeper and more efficient than those where growth is slower. This yields anobvious implication for countries where a substantial proportion of the populationis rural and where rural economic activity, both farm and nonfarm, generates asizeable share of economic value-added and employment. That is, if rural economiesare to grow at a faster rate, rural financial markets have to function well. Fasterrural economic growth will have a positive impact on income distribution, alleviatepoverty, and allow national economies to compete more effectively in an increasinglyintegrated global marketplace.