Panama: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Panama

IMF Staff Country Reports, March 24, 2023

Source details

Canonical URL: Panama: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Panama

In the decade-and-half preceding the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, an unprecedented construction and investment boom precipitated a rapid economic expansion in Panama.
Major infrastructure and investment projects included expansions of the Panama Canal and Tocumen Airport, large scale building of new skyscrapers in Panama City, and construction of one of the largest copper mines in the world.

Need to boost resilience to shocks by:
- rebuilding fiscal buffers,
- strengthening financial integrity,
- enhancing financial sector oversight.
Fiscal challenge: a steady decline in the revenue-to-gross domestic product ratio needs to be reversed to reduce the fiscal deficit over the medium term while creating room for new spending and preserving social assistance.

Rebuild fiscal buffers to increase resilience to shocks.
Reverse the decline in the revenue-to-gross domestic product ratio to:
- reduce the fiscal deficit over the medium term,
- create room for new spending, including on education,
- preserve spending on social assistance.
Strengthen financial integrity and enhance financial sector oversight to sustain rapid convergence with advanced economies.

Subject: Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), Credit, Crime, Economic sectors, International organization, Monetary policy, Money, Public debt, Public sector, Revenue administration
Keywords: Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), Central America, Credit, food price subsidy, Global, growth-interest differential, IMF staff calculation, inflation expectation, Public sector, superintendency of bank