Edgar Barquin, president of the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat), explained that this decision was made based on surveys which reflect employers' decisions about investing, as well as budget execution data, projections and plans by the Government, entry of foreign investment, authorized licenses for construction granted by municipalities, and building spaces.

"We have data which is different from the Banguat because we have relied on the Index of Construction Activity (Imacon), in which we found that from the first quarter of 2012 to the first of 2013 there was a drop of 18%," said the President of the Chamber of the Guatemalan Construction Industry (CGC by its initials in Spanish), José Luis Agüero, who did not indicate the exact figure for 2013.

According to Aguero, the enforcement of the Tax Update Law has produced uncertainty in the sector "because there are no clear rules, and this has been compounded by the low budget execution this year."

Source: sigloxxi.com

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