Strengthening government institutions in the areas of contract enforcement, property rights protection and investor protection are part of the recommendations made by the IMF in its most recent visit to the country.
According to the international organization, policies to regain the confidence of the private sector, including a frank assessment of the impact of recent measures, are essential to promote economic recovery and compensate for increased poverty. In the short term, strengthening government institutions in the areas of contract enforcement and efficiency of the legal framework for dispute resolution, protection of property rights, investor protection, property registration, and insolvency resolution could significantly improve the country's competitiveness.
In its latest update of economic growth projections for 2019, ECLAC estimates that the Dominican Republic will close the year with a 5% increase, followed by Panama, which would reach a growth rate of 3.7%.
According to economic growth projections for Latin America, which were estimated by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) and updated in November, the Dominican Republic will be the country in the region that will increase its production the most this year.
Standard & Poor's warned that if in the coming months the political environment worsens or access to local and external financing deteriorates again, the debt note could suffer further deterioration.
In Nicaragua, the authorities have not published information on the Monthly Index of Economic Activity since February 2019, when the year-on-year fall was 7.5%, a situation that prevents businessmen from making decisions based on the real situation of the economy.
After the economies of the region grew by 2.6% in 2018 as a whole, the IMF estimates that 2019 would close with a rise of 2.7% and could reach 3.4% by 2020.
The document "World Economic Outlook", prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), states that for Panama the projected growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2019 was reduced from 5% to 4.3%.
After having recorded a 4% fall in GDP in 2018, the Central Bank authorities forecast that the Nicaraguan economy will begin to recover in the 2020-2021 period.
In the 2019 Global Competitiveness Index, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua fell back in the ranking, while Honduras registered no changes and the Dominican Republic was the only country that improved.
According to the report by the World Economic Forum, during 2019 Costa Rica ranked 62 out of 141 countries. It was followed by Panama at box 66, the Dominican Republic at 78, Guatemala at 98, Honduras at 101, El Salvador at 103 and Nicaragua at 109.
Because between 2018 and 2019, the consumer's fixed expense free budget in Costa Rica is estimated to have decreased from 18% to 14% of total revenue, four out of ten buyers made the decision to change brands, and two are considering doing the same.
A study presented by Elfinancierocr.com, explains that women are the most affected by the economic situation of the country, since they said that after subtracting all their fixed costs, they only have 12% of their budget.
Understanding the economic environment the company is facing, generating projections in real time and having the opinion of external consultants to the organization, are some of the strategies that could help companies in times of low sales.
In Central America, during the first half of the year, some economies reported declines in their productive activity. The most difficult case is Nicaragua, where economic activity has collapsed 7% in the last year. However, other countries face adverse situations, such as Costa Rica, whose level of economic activity has shown a downward trend over the last year and a half.
After the July Consumer Price Index reported a 6.1% year-on-year variation, in August the increase was 6.3%.
In cumulative terms, national inflation stood at 4.03% (1.66% in August 2018), induced by the behavior of prices in the divisions of Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (42.89%), Several goods and services (9.87%), and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.81%), with a joint contribution of 2.13%, reported the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
Avoiding hurried discounts, managing price increases according to costs and improving cash flow are some of the strategies that companies can resort to protect their profitability in contexts of inflation and recession.
Ariel Baños, a price management specialist and founder of Fijciondeprecios.com, explains four strategies for maintaining profitability when companies face scenarios of rising prices and low dynamism in economic activity.
Faced with the threat of a global economic slowdown and the possibility of the U.S. entering recession next year, businessmen in the region argue that to mitigate possible adverse effects, it is key to diversify export destinations.
Market analysts assure that the slowdown in U.S. economic activity is already a reality, and that what is still not clear, is the possibility that the economy will go into recession next year. The recent reversal of the U.S. bond curve, which historically has been the signal that warns of a recession in the short term, may not mean the same on this time, say some U.S. brokerage firms.
During the first six months of 2019, the country received $797 million in remittances, 10% more than the amount reported in the same period last year.
In June of this year, remittances totaled $134.3 million dollars, which represented a 16.6% increase over the same month in 2018, informed the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
The outlook for some economies in the region for 2019 is not the best: in Nicaragua GDP is expected to fall between 5% and 7%, while in Costa Rica the growth estimate at the end of the year was reduced from 3.2% to 2.2%.
The estimates of the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides), presented in its "Informe de Coyuntura - Julio 2019", indicate that by 2019 an economic contraction of between 5.4% and 6.8% will be reported in the country.
Between 2018 and 2019, the proportion of the Nicaraguan population making purchases or payments online grew from 2% to 7%, a rise explained by the need for businesses to minimize costs in a context of economic crisis.
The political and economic crisis, in which Nicaragua has been immersed since April 2018, has caused companies to look for ways to reduce costs, as consumers demand products at lower prices.
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