Panama has a solid foundation of economic and political stability. Panama grew at 8.4% in 2013 – the second-fastest growth rate in Latin America and the Caribbean. Average growth over the past decade has been 8.7%, Latin America’s fastest, including 3.9% during the global slump in 2009. Thanks to good macroeconomic policy making, it has a history of low unemployment (currently 4.1%), and low inflation (4%). An upper-middle income country, it has free-flowing capital and attracts one of the highest rates of FDI in Latin America at 11.7% of GDP in 2013, compared to Mexico’s 1.3%. Between 2007 and 2013 Panama doubled its GDP.
With the Panama Canal expansion works going into full gear, the construction of a Metro system in Panama City and several large infrastructure projects such as roads, convention centres, hospitals, utilities and social housing, growth is expected to remain strong over the coming years, although lower than in the past five.
