The International Monetary Fund (IMF) maintained its perspective on Tuesday that the Salvadoran economy will grow by 3 % in 2024While he improved the stage by 2025 also to a 3 per cent dynamism.
In its annual report on the world economy (WEO), published on Tuesday, the IMF maintained that the Salvadoran gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 3 %, as it updated last April when it raised the perspective from 1.9 per cent.
By 2025, the perspective of 1.3% to 3 %.
On the occasion of the 2024 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group, held in Washington from 21 to 26 October, the two multilaterals publish updates of the economic outlook. First it was the World Bank, which on 9 October applied areductionto its projection of 3.2 % to 2.9 % for the Salvadoran economy.
Meanwhile, the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) expects growth of between 3 % and 3.5 per cent, although second-quarter results – when GDP expanded at its lowest rate since the pandemic, in 1.4 %– put at risk that this scenario will be met by the closure of 2024.
How’s it going to the region?
Costa Rica remains the fastest growing economy by 2024, by 4 %, although by 2025 the IMF anticipates a slowdown to 3.5 per cent. This country is experiencing an economic boom due to a higher demand for medical and precision equipment, which according to the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER) places the country as the first per capita exporter in the Americas of these high-tech devices.
Guatemala is the largest economy in Central America and enjoys economic stability, despite political events since 2023. According to the IMF, 3.5 % will grow in 2024 and in 2025 it will rise to 3.6%.
For Honduras, the Monetary Fund expects it to grow 3.6 percent in 2024 while next year it will slow down to 3.5 percent.
Nicaragua, immersed in a political crisis since 2018, will be at the head of Costa Rica with a growth projection of 4 % for this year, a rate that by 2025 will be 3.8 percent.
Panama will be the fastest growing economy in 2024, hit by the closure since November 2023 of the largest copper deposit in the region. In 2025, according to the IMF, the projection is 3 %.
If these scenarios are fulfilled,Costa Rica and Nicaragua will be the fastest growing economies in 2024, while by 2025 Nicaragua will lead regional growth.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo