This annual publication examines the economic performance of the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, and of individual countries, for the year 2005 as well as assessing the outlook for 2006. The regional economy grew for a third consecutive year in 2005 with an estimated GDP growth of 4.3 per cent, with a projected GDP growth rate in 2006 of 4.1 per cent. Per capita GDP is estimated to have risen by about 3 per cent, the unemployment rate fell from 10.3 per cent in 2004 to 9.3 per cent in 2005 and poverty indices showed a decrease. But the region is growing at lower rates than developing countries as a whole (5.7 per cent GDP growth in the period 2003-2006). Latin American and Caribbean sub-regions show distinctive behaviours: the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) and the Andean Community countries and, to a certain extent the Caribbean, registered higher growth than Mexico and Central America.