The main challenge faced today by the Guatemalan economy is that of economic growth. This challenge is not easy, specially when the economy's basic conditions cannot support the necessary effort.

The actual economic model is no longer sustainable in the medium term. Only by means of rapid economic growth can well-being be offered to the great majorities, thus reducing poverty in both absolute and relative terms. In the medium term, the benefits of economic growth will be felt as an improvement in the country's social and political situation.

The central points of the strategy for growth are the development of the foreign market and of productive investment, as well as a stable macro-economic situation that will permit an increase in savings.

In a growth strategy, the State has a central role in the creation of an institutionality that will guarantee macro-economic stability, facilitate the accumulation of capital by the poor, and guarantee the existence of a legal system that will promote competition, not only in the basic services but in the economy as a whole.

This will facilitate (and directly develop, in the case of public goods) the development of the basic infrastructure, in order to guarantee compliance with property rights, and will establish policies to reduce extreme poverty.