News

By Duncan McGowan 

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have reaffirmed their projections that Panama will remain the fastest growing economy in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2018.

The analysis comes from the two respected organizations’ annual spring meeting, where they traditionally re-evaluate economic progress. But the group found little negative about Panama’s economy, which they expect to grow by 5.6 percent in 2018, up slightly from 2017.

“The performance of the economy continues to be quite positive, especially compared to the countries of the region,” Alejandro Santos, head of mission for Panama of the IMF, told La Prensa.

Transportation and logistics projects, including a myriad of public and private projects, such as the expansion of the Panama Metro, the massive Cobre Panama copper mine and the construction of a new convention center on the Amador Causeway activities are helping to maintain Panama’s growth, according to the international organizations.

Santos also told La Prensa that “advances in tax transparency and money laundering policies will be important to maintain the role of Panama as an international financial center and as a business center, which will allow maintaining the growth of the economy at a medium term.”

The IMF is actually bullish on the entire region. The IMF raised its estimate for Latin America and the Caribbean to 2 percent for 2018, up from the 1.9 percent it forecast last October. And it raised the 2019 prediction to 2.8 percent growth, up from 2.4 percent.w

The World Bank sees a recovery move from the region’s biggest economies, although their growth will still fall behind Panama. Brazil is expected to see its economy expand by 2.4 percent in 2018, while Argentina will grow by 2.7 percent and Mexico by 2.3 percent.