"The World Bank is forecasting slower economic growth for Latin America in 2008 due to higher food and fuel costs, but stressed the region is ready to weather a global slowdown, a senior official said on Wednesday. Pamela Cox, the Bank's vice president for Latin America, said growth for the region this year should be "more or less" 4.5 percent. Her last estimate of 4.8 percent was given to Reuters in April and was lower than a previous forecast of 5.1 percent. [Reuters]

She said that a bigger impact of a slowdown in growth in the U.S. will likely be seen in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. That would be due in part to a weakening of remittances. Cox said that South American nations will be better protected against any economic downturn due to a wider base for their exports and greater commodity production.

The Latin American nations are also expected to be protected in many cases by what Cox called their "sensible" macroeconomic policies. [Dow Jones International]

The comments came as Cox attended the EU-Latin America summit in Peru, where she added that "Droughts and an increasing agricultural focus on biofuels instead of staple food crops mean food prices will probably remain high until 2015, Cox said. The World Bank is 'concerned'by global inflation, she said.

'The era of cheap food is over, for at least the next seven or eight years,' Cox said.

Latin America needs to invest more in transportation infrastructure to bring down food prices, Cox said. The World Bank plans to lend Latin American countries $4.6 billion this year, she said." [Bloomberg]