President of the Inter American Development BANK (IDB) Luis Alberto Moreno said on Wednesday that the world economic crisis is affecting Latin American and Caribbean countries, but he could not agree to the protectionism.

"The crisis is reducing the credit availability in the emerging countries and at the same time it is reducing the demand of raw materials, which are the main exports sources of Latin American and Caribbean coutries," Moreno said.

Meanwhile, Moreno disagreed to the thought of protectionism. "We must avoid the protectionism as it can worsen the situation and destroy the commercial ties."

Moreno said that in the last five years, Latin American and Caribbean countries have made an excellent work improving the solidity of their economies and the life quality of millions of people.

"Since 2003, some 48 million people have surpassed the poverty line. We need to assure the success against the poverty," Moreno said.

"If the crisis lasts one year,the economic growth would fall to 1.1 percent forecast by the International monetary Found (IMF), which may cause 2.8 million people back to poverty in Latin America and Caribbean," Moreno added.

Moreno said that the governments of the region should use money "wisely" to weather the crisis, proposing investments in social security networks and infrastructure.

Moreno said that the IDB's loans and operations have not been seriously affected by the crisis. However, its liquid investment portfolio suffered losses in the last year.

Moreno believed that nowadays Latin America needs a solid bank as soon as possible, not only to answer the financial uncertainty and the economic deceleration, but also to surpass the challenges of development.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2009)