In contrast to the measures taken by some neighboring countries, the government reported that at the local level, charges for water, electricity, Internet and telephone services will not be suspended.
Authorities argued that at the moment it is not possible to postpone payments, as few basic services are provided by the government in the country.
In 2019, the perception of corruption in public institutions increased in all countries of the region except Costa Rica, where it remained the same as in 2018.
As has been the case in recent years, Nicaragua's public sector continues to be perceived as the most corrupt in the region (transparency level 22 on a scale of 0 to 100), followed by Guatemala (26), Honduras (26), Dominican Republic (28), El Salvador (34), Panama (36), and Costa Rica (56).
To the denouncements made in recent months by businessmen from Guatemala and Nicaragua, is added that of a Honduran union, which denounces the invasion of 3,400 manzanas of productive land.
The Dominican Republic, Panama and Honduras are the nations in the region where the majority of the population believes that corruption in governmentinstitutions has increased in the last twelve months.
The report "Barómetro Global de la Corrupción: América Latina y El Caribe 2019 - Opiniones y Experiencias de los ciudadanos en materia de corrupción" (Global Corruption Barometer: Latin America and the Caribbean 2019 - Opinions and Experiences of Citizens on Corruption), compiled by Transparency International and published on September 23, 2019, evaluated the perception of corruption in the countries of the region and some aspects of insecurity.
Because the area of stolen land in Guatemala has grown from about 10,000 hectares in the 1990s to 164,000 in 2018, losses in agricultural production caused by this phenomenon reached nearly $650 million last year.
The Chamber of Agriculture (Camagro) estimates that only in 2018, invasions of private property, mainly agricultural production farms, generated a negative impact equivalent to 0.6% of Gross Domestic Product.
Regarding the figure for the end of the first half of 2018, up to June of this year the external debt of the public sector of Honduras increased by $163 million.
At the end of the first semester of 2019, total external debt (public and private) registered a balance of US$9,035.1 million, higher by US$16.2 million compared to December 2018. This result is derived from the net use of loans for US$28.6 million (greater disbursements than amortizations), partially attenuated by a favorable exchange variation that reduced the balance by US$12.4 million.
For the IMF, recent steps towards a more flexible exchange rate, especially by reducing currency surrender requirements, are positive.
The international organization encouraged the country to a gradual transition to exchange rate flexibility and to continue efforts to strengthen the operational autonomy and governance of the central bank with a perspective of a gradual transition to an inflation targeting regime.
After more than 40 days of protests and looting, Honduran businessmen report that about 50 companies have been affected, and several stores have already been closed.
Preliminary reports from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tegucigalpa (CCIT), establish that among the most affected businesses are supermarket chains, appliance stores, fast food restaurants and microenterprises dedicated to the marketing of clothing and footwear.
With regard to the figure for the end of the third month of 2018, up to March of this year the external debt of the public sector of Honduras increased by $151 million.
The balance of Honduras' total external debt stood at $9,008.7 million at the end of March 2019, $10.2 million less than that of December 2018, a result of a favorable exchange variation that reduced the balance by $12.9 million and net utilization of $2.7 million (disbursements received by $365.4 million, partially offset by capital payments of $362.7 million), explains a report by the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH).
The business sector is concerned about the way in which the demonstrations have developed in recent days, generating "an unsustainable cost to the Honduran economy.”
After the Honduran government approved decrees PCM-026-2018 and PCM-027-2019, the country's doctors and teachers began demonstrations with the aim of repealing them, because they argue that they will be able to fire government employees and privatize public services.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica are the countries in the region with the best conditions to develop Public-Private Partnerships, followed by Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The 2019 Infrascope index, which evaluates 23 indicators and 78 qualitative and quantitative sub-indicators in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Latin America, is prepared by The Economist Intelligence Unit and has the financial backing of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Compared to the 2018 year-end figure, Honduras' public sector external debt was reduced by $23 million up to February this year.
The ratio of public external debt to gross domestic product (GDP) was 29.8%, 1% lower than at the end of 2018 (30.8%), thus indicating the sustainability of public external debt in the medium and long term, since it remains below the prudential limit recommended by the World Bank, informed the Central Bank of Honduras.
Guatemala and El Salvador are the Central American economies that have registered the lowest levels of economic growth, when this is associated with the size of their public sector.
Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica are the countries that would be obtaining exceptional results in their economic growth from the average expenditure of the region during 2011 to 2018, which could be associated with the investment made in past periods, informed the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies (Icefi).
In 2018, the perception of corruption in public institutions increased in all countries in the region, except Panama, where it remained the same as in 2017, and El Salvador, where it slightly decreased.
As in previous years, Nicaragua's public sector continues to be considered the most corrupt in the region (level of transparency 25 on a scale of 0 to 100), followed by Guatemala (27), Honduras (29), El Salvador (35), Panama (37), and Costa Rica (56).
Arguing that "it has violated human rights in Guatemala through selective and partial justice", President Morales decided to end the mandate of the United Nations International Commission against Impunity.
After more than ten years of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), the Morales administration announced in 2018 that it would not renew the agreement with the United Nations that establishes the foreign institution dedicated to criminal investigation.
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