Between the period from March to May 2020 and the same period in 2021, electricity consumption increased by 5%, a rise that can be attributed to the increase in exports and tourism activity.
Data from the National Energy Control Center (Cence) highlights that for the periods under analysis, consumption at the national level went from 2,780 to 2,906 Gigawatt hours (GWh), which is equivalent to an increase of 126 GWh.
According to the IMF, the local economy is well positioned to support the recovery and overcome the deterioration of social indicators, which worsened due to the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Strong remittances, pandemic-resilient productive specialization, and unprecedented economic policy support limited economic contraction in 2020, while the outlook for 2021 benefits from additional U.S. fiscal stimulus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported.
After in January 2021 in the context of the crisis caused by the pandemic, the Monthly Index of Economic Activity at the national level reported a 6% decrease in year on year terms, in February a smaller drop was registered, amounting to 3.5%.
The drop recorded in February continues to reflect the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the damage caused by the tropical storms of November 2020, affecting the evolution of most economic activities, mainly in "... Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing; Manufacturing Industry; Transportation and Storage; Hotels and Restaurants; Commerce; and Private Construction; these contractions have been partially offset by the boost in the services of Mail and Telecommunications and Financial Intermediation", informed the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH).
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.
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.
As a result of the pandemic in May 2020, the IMAE hit bottom by falling 22% year-on-year, but from June onwards, smaller falls began to be reported and in October the decline was barely 1%; however, in November the country fell back by 12%.
National production, measured through the original series of the Monthly Index of Economic Activity (IMAE), reflected a 12% year-on-year decrease in November 2020, determined by the negative impact of the pandemic, to which was added the losses in production due to the flooding caused in the national territory in the first half of November by the occurrence of tropical storms Eta and Iota.
Because of the fall in economic activity and the restrictions imposed to contain the spread of covid-19, businessmen in Costa Rica and Panama predict that the process of economic recovery will not be completed in the near future.
In this crisis scenario generated by the covid-19 outbreak, the Costa Rican economy does not show clear signs of recovery, since during November 2020 the Monthly Index of Economic Activity reported a year-on-year fall of 6.2%, a decline similar to that reported in October, when it was 6.3%.
In the context of the pandemic, the Costa Rican economy does not show clear signs of recovery, since during November 2020 the Monthly Index of Economic Activity reported an annual fall of 6.2%, a decline that is similar to that reported in October when it was 6.3%.
In November, the contraction persisted, in year-on-year terms, in most economic activities. The most affected are: hotels and restaurants (-52.3%), transportation and storage (-20.6%), construction (-19.7%) and commerce (-12.4%), reported the Central Bank of Costa Rica.
Strengthening the confidence of economic agents through a solution to the problem of public finances and moving forward with the process of vaccinating the population are key factors for the Costa Rican economy to recover quickly in the new year.
The spread of covid-19 and the restrictions imposed at the local and global levels severely affected most of Costa Rica's productive sectors, to the extent that the unemployment rate climbed to historical levels, several businesses were closed and economic activity fell sharply.
After bottoming out in the second quarter of the year, Guatemala's industrial activity index reversed its trend as of July, and in September 2020 registered a 6% drop.
According to analysis by Central American Business Intelligence (Cabi), because the mobility of people in the country is not fully restored, some sub-sectors are still affected.
Between October and November, the number of visitors from the US quadrupled, from 6,000 to 24,000, a rise reported in the context of the economic reopening and the reactivation of commercial flights.
The 24,606 Americans who arrived in the country during November, represent a little more than a quarter of the visits from the US registered in the same month of 2019, informed the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT). The decrease in tourist arrivals is due to the crisis generated by the outbreak of covid-19 at a global level.
Since people are staying at home more because of changing consumer habits, Guatemalan entrepreneurs say that kitchen furniture, pergolas and other household items have been in the greatest demand.
Because of the economic crisis that resulted from the covid-19 outbreak, sales goals will not be met this year. Prior to the start of the pandemic, Guatemalan entrepreneurs in the sector estimated that by 2020 the amount of furniture and wood products sold would be $210 million, but in the current context, they forecast that the figure will be reduced to $160 million.
After the IMAE reported year-on-year variations of -9% and -8%, respectively, in July and August, during September the Costa Rican economy continued to recover from the impact of the health crisis by reporting a 6% drop in production.
The Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) reported that the economy is in the process of recovery, as a result of the process of reopening and gradual lifting of sanitary restrictions, which were imposed following the outbreak of covid-19. However, the upturn so far is not enough to fully recover the loss in production of the previous quarter, so the level of activity is still lower than in the last quarter of 2019.
After dropping in May 2020 due to the outbreak of covid-19, then registering a -11% year-on-year variation, since then the economic activity index has been recovering quickly, reporting a reduction of only 0.3% in September.
The 0.3% decline in the Monthly Index of Economic Activity (IMAE) was influenced by the drop recorded in Accommodation and food service activities, Construction, Trade and vehicle repair, Transportation and storage, as well as by the growth observed in Manufacturing industries; Supply of electricity, water and sanitation services, and, Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing.
As of June, Central American economies began to show signs of incipient recovery and as of August, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica registered the smallest drops in their levels of economic activity.
Since March of this year, the region has faced a severe economic crisis generated by the outbreak of covid-19.
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