Violence and corruption curbing business in Latin America

Criminal violence and corruption curbs business in Latin American, where countries spend on average 8% of their GDP on security.

That says CentralAmericaData was the conclusion reached during a forum "Connecting businesses as partners for prosperity with security in the Americas", organized by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the private sector, under the framework of the Guatemala Investment Summit.

Oscar Avalle, World Bank country director in Guatemala, said that according to research by the agency, 8% of gross domestic product (GDP) is destined for security costs in the countries of the region.
In addition, the report notes that the economic costs of violence reaches 7.7% of GDP in Central America. In Honduras the rate is 9%, El Salvador 7.7%, 7.3% in Guatemala and Costa Rica it is 3.6%.
Santiago Molina and Guillermo González, president and director of the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations (Cacif), demonstrated that the structuring of security costs for a company can reach up to 12%, which impacts on their competitiveness and makes it unprofitable. "We realized that the costs have increased in recent months and it has expanded across the whole country," said Gonzalez.