Latin American countries are well placed to survive the global financial crisis without falling into recession, the heads of Spanish businesses with interests in the continent said Wednesday.

`This will be the first global economic crisis in which Latin America will not slip into recession,` Francisco Gonzalez, head of Spain`s second largest bank, BBVA, told an economic forum on Latin America.

Gonzalez, Cesar Alierta, the head of the Telefonica telecoms giant, and Antonio Brufao of oil group Repsol YPF all agreed that the region would continue to grow, although at a slower rate than in previous years.

`Macroeconomic fundamentals have been well managed` as the region has been able to maintain strict policies while profiting from the global economic gains of recent years, particularly the high prices of raw materials, said Brufau.

Gonzalez said Latin America is `one of the few regions in the world with positive growth,` predicting a 2.0 percent gain for 2009 after an average of 5.0 percent over the past five years.

But he also warned that the region`s `exports are concentrated on a small number of raw materials and only in certain countries.`

In a report released late last month, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development maintained a `prudent optimism about the economic resistance` of Latin America, following annual growth of 5.6 percent in 2007, and more than 100 billion dollars of direct foreign investment in the region.

`Only a decade ago, an economic slowdown like the one the world is witnessing today would have sent the economies of the region toppling like dominoes,` said the director of the Development Center of the OECD.

However, the OECD warned the countries of the region they must focus on improving their tax and spending policies as they begin to feel the effects of the slowing world economy.