The Panama Banking system has a liquidity of $14 billion and $115 million is affected by the credit crisis.
The Panama Superintendent of Banks, Olegario Barrelier, declared to the National Assembly that the $115 million affected by the crisis represent "a very low proportion" when compared to the $51 billion in assets in the national banking system or the $75 billion in the international banking center.
This special report examines the channels through which Fitch-rated sovereigns in this sub-region could be impacted by external shocks, the robustness of their
various policy frameworks and the implications for creditworthiness of
increasingly challenging international conditions.
The US financial crisis has spread across the international financial system.
The Dow Jones industrial average opened 400 points higher and never looked back, led by big gains in financial stocks.
Last week’s stock sell-off gave way to a big rally, with the Dow Jones industrial average having its largest-ever point gain. The surge came as countries around the world took steps to ease the financial crisis, ushering in a drastic reshaping of the banking industry even as doubts lingered about its long-term effects.
The finantial crisis in USA will especially hurt Mexico and Central America, whose economies are closely tied to the U.S. market.
Don't be fooled by the universal sigh of relief that was heard Friday when the U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion package to rescue the U.S. banking system.
The measure will help avoid an economic collapse, but the U.S. economy will remain in the doldrums, and Latin America will be hit harder than many suspect.
The finantial crisis in USA will especially hurt Mexico and Central America, whose economies are closely tied to the U.S. market.
Don't be fooled by the universal sigh of relief that was heard Friday when the U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion package to rescue the U.S. banking system.
The measure will help avoid an economic collapse, but the U.S. economy will remain in the doldrums, and Latin America will be hit harder than many suspect.
When the true economic value is too far from the fabulous figures invented by financial engineering, crisis - and an adjustment - is inevitable.
Cristóbal Perez-Jerez Alvarado, MBA in international economics, analyzes, with the very much needed academic indifference of today (and also the very scarce common sense), the current financial crisis.
After an illustrative compilation of the facts, and a sober review of possible solutions and the inevitable consequences, Perez-Jerez takes a look at the possible actions that can be taken in Costa Rica; all this in an analysis that can be applied throughout Central America.
The current financial crisis demonstrates how powerful and decisive the expectations of investors and the economic agents in general can be.
Expectations created a bubble in the prices of homes and properties in the US. By bubble I mean a price established mainly due to optimism (which can be irrational - even though there is experimental evidence that bubbles can be created when all the investors are rational - Vernon Smith).
The U.S. mortgage crisis has hit Costa Rica's once booming vacation home market, with sales plummeting as Americans who dream of buying a tropical getaway struggle to find financing.
U.S. retirees and vacationers often pay for beach homes along Costa Rica's jungle-fringed beaches by taking out mortgages on their homes in the United States, but trouble in the banking sector has made that more difficult, realtors say.
The credit rating company Fitch warned that rising interest rates and out-of-control inflation could cause debtors to default on their loans.
Maurice Choussy, executive director of Fitch Centroamérica, said the rise in inflation is affecting the ability to pay for both families and businesses.
As well, he said, they must face the high costs of primary materials and salary demands from employees.