Panama economy will grow 9% this year  – World Bank

Panama’s economy will grow 9.9% this year, according to a new report published by the World Bank.

According to this forecast, Panama would be among the countries with the highest growth rate in Latin America, behind Guyana (21.2%), Peru (11.3%), and Chile (10.6%).

For next year, the international organization’s estimate for Panama is a growth of 7.5%, also among the highest in the continent.

In a press conference with the region’s media, William Maloney the Bank’s chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean briefly referred to the evolution of the Panamanian economy.

He said that the country received strong blows in sectors such as tourism and air transport, and stressed the importance of reactivating them. He also noted that there are similar challenges to the rest of the region, such as greater integration, improving infrastructure, and the quality of education to improve growth rates in the medium term.

Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole will grow 6.3% in 2021, which will not be enough to completely reverse the 6.7% contraction recorded last year.

The agency noted that to achieve the growth rate necessary to move the region forward and reduce social tensions, reforms must be urgently carried out in the areas of infrastructure, education, health, energy policy, and innovation, in addition to facing the new challenges of climate change.