Economic growth in much of Latin America and the Caribbean remains strong, reports the World Bank. In a new report released November 16, the bank said the strong growth reflects the region´s “supportive external conditions” and an improved “domestic policy environment.” Despite a more moderate rate of expansion, economic activity is well above the 2.5 average growth rate in the region of the preceding 20 years, the bank said.

Venezuela´s economy grew for an eighth quarter in the July-through-September period as President Hugo Chavez boosted government spending, targeting the poor with subsidies on food and medical services, and doling out scholarships for literacy classes and job training. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a country´s production of goods and services, expanded 9.8 percent in the third quarter from the year-earlier period after growing 8.8 percent in the first half, the central bank said in a statement.

LAN Airlines S.A. and its related companies, one of the leading airline groups in Latin America, reported its preliminary monthly, accumulated traffic statistics and punctuality indicators for October 2005. System passenger traffic for October spiked 6.7 percent as capacity rose of 3.2 percent. As a result, the Company´s load factor soared 2.4 points to 72.9 percent.

Traffic measured in revenue passenger-mile (RPM) went up 9.5 percent for Spanish airline Iberia in the month of October, compared to the previous year, against a capacity increase of 5.5 percent. The number of passengers surged by 6.5 percent, reaching 2.5 million, of which 1.1 million corresponded to international routes. Following the strategy of increasing intercontinental flights in a higher proportion, long-haul capacity rose by 8.2 percent compared to the previous year. Traffic maintained the good performance of the previous months, growing by 10.4 percent and continuing the improvement of the mix.

TUI AG has continued the positive performance in its core business sectors in the third quarter of the ongoing year. Turnover and earnings were improved compared to the previous year in both tourism and shipping. Turnover in the tourism sector for the first 9 months of 2005 rose by 6.0 percent to 11.3 billion euros, while shipping turnover rose by 17.0 percent to 2.3 billion euros.

Latin American and Caribbean migrants will send around $55 billion to their countries of origin this year, according to estimates released last week by the Inter-American Development Bank´s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). The MIF, an autonomous fund administered by the IDB, had said earlier this year that remittances to this region could reach $50 billion, up from $45 billion in 2004.