Fifteen months after the beginning of the health and economic crisis, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are the economies in the region with the highest inflation rates, a behavior that was influenced by increases in fuel and transportation costs.
In the second quarter of 2020, a period in which the countries of the region were going through a severe economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, inflation levels were low and in some economies negative variations were reported.
Following the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Guatemala, the business sector assures that in order to reduce illegal migration from Central America to the US, it is necessary to create a favorable and comfortable environment for local and foreign investment in the countries of the region.
As part of Harris' visit to Guatemala, Agexport prepared a document with proposals that reflect the experience it has accumulated over many years, incorporating Guatemalans and small rural businesses into export chains, generating income that allows them to remain in their territories.
For Fitch, the delay in vaccination campaigns constitutes a latent risk of a prolonged pandemic, which would delay the recovery of the region's economies and would cause negative pressures on the risk ratings to be issued in the coming months.
Fitch Ratings issued a bulletin for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean on May 25, in which it warned that given the deep economic contractions in the region and the moderate recovery outlook, there are threats of negative rating pressures.
After the Legislative Assembly ratified the country's accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the business sector is of the opinion that this will help consolidate the institutional reforms needed to make the State more efficient.
The Assembly informed that by approving in the second debate the bill 22.187, which contains the agreement on the terms of accession, the deputies gave the green light to Costa Rica's accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In order to contain the advance of the pandemic, during the rest of the month of May, capacity reductions and restrictions to the circulation of vehicles will be applied, measures that will be applied throughout the national territory.
Through a press conference, the Costa Rican Government announced that as of May 13, sanitary measures will be applied, which will be based on the modification of some existing ones.
In order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, local authorities decided that from Monday, May 3 through Sunday, May 9, all commercial establishments operating in the cantons of the Central Region and which are not classified as essential, must close to the public.
These establishments will be able to operate under the non-face-to-face modality by means of home delivery or self-service.
Reducing costs and barriers to foreign trade in Central American economies is key for the region to overcome the economic recession caused by the outbreak of Covid-19.
A report prepared by the World Bank explains that boosting economic activity and employing a higher percentage of the labor force are objectives that can be achieved through reforms that strengthen the private sector and attract investment.
In order to reduce the effects of the pandemic that caused the outbreak of Covid-19, from April 27 to May 16, there will be restrictions on vehicle traffic from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. the following day.
Given the speed of the increase in the number of infections and hospital occupancy, some of the most severe epidemiological data since the beginning of the pandemic, the health authorities made the decision to change the restriction schedule, according to an official statement.
During February 2021, economic activity fell 4.7% in year-on-year terms, a drop that evidences that the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 outbreak continues to affect Costa Rica.
According to the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), as per the cycle trend series of the Monthly Index of Economic Activity (IMAE), the inter-annual variation of production reached its lowest point in June 2020, at which point it began a gradual recovery process.
For the mobile quarter from December 2020 to February 2021, the unemployment rate in the country decreased to 18.5%, a proportion that is slightly lower than the 19% reported for the period from November to January last year.
In this quarter, the unemployed population was 452 thousand people, an increase of 142 thousand people compared to the same mobile quarter of the previous year, informed the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).
The World Bank predicts that by the end of this year Panama and the Dominican Republic will be the economies of the region that will grow the most, and the countries that will report the lowest increases in their production will be Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
After the region's economies were considerably affected in 2020 by the sanitary crisis generated by the Covid-19 outbreak, the outlook of international organizations for 2021 is encouraging.
During January of this year, production in Costa Rica decreased 4.8% in year-on-year terms, a decline that is explained by the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic caused by the outbreak of covid-19.
In January 2021, the production of manufacturing and computer services grew 1.9% and 0.7%, respectively, in year-on-year terms. In contrast, the rest of the economic activities showed drops in their level of activity in relation to January 2020, states a report by the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR).
As a result of the economic crisis generated by the pandemic, it is estimated that four out of every five Central American companies were forced to increase their debts in order to sustain their operations.
According to the 2021 Regional Survey on economic reactivation prepared by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the Central American Isthmus (Fecamco), the resources obtained through indebtedness, served the companies to pay payroll, face rents and support operations.
High social charges, excessive regulations for businesses and the high price of labor are factors that prevent Costa Rica's economy from reaching its growth potential.
In Costa Rica, establishing a personally owned company without employees is up to three times more expensive than what it can cost in a country that belongs to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Twelve months after Central America began a health and economic crisis triggered by the covid-19 outbreak, Guatemala was the fastest recovering economy and Panamanian economic activity is the slowest to return to pre-pandemic levels.
In March 2020, the first cases of covid-19 began to be detected in the countries of the region. The highly contagious disease, which at that time had already claimed the lives of thousands of people around the world, forced Central American governments to establish mobility restrictions.