## Panama: Selected Issues

_IMF Staff Country Reports, January 17, 2019_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Panama: Selected Issues](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/cr/issues/2019/01/17/panama-selected-issues-46529)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/publications/cr/issues/2019/01/17/panama-selected-issues-46529/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/publications/cr/issues/2019/01/17/panama-selected-issues-46529/index.json)
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## Bibliographic details
- Published: January 17, 2019
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484394069.002

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### Overview
- Argues that Panama’s prospects for maintaining buoyant growth critically depends on continued productivity growth underpinned by comprehensive reforms focused on improving education quality, attracting talent, and continuing to enhance the investment climate.
- Notes Panama experienced both episodes of growth convergence and divergence over the past several decades.
- States Panama embarked on a path of rapid growth since the political stabilization in the 1990s, bringing it closer to moving from the middle to the high-income bracket.
- Warns that maintaining high growth rates may prove increasingly challenging for countries at Panama’s current level of income.

### Key findings and analysis
- Continued productivity gains are critical for maintaining high growth rates and moving toward the club of high-income economies.
- Sustaining productivity growth depends on:
  - improving education quality;
  - attracting foreign talent toward knowledge-based sectors of the economy;
  - strengthening the investment environment.
- The paper frames Panama’s recent performance as “stellar” but emphasizes that future growth is conditional on policy reforms to support productivity.

### Policy recommendations
- Implement comprehensive reforms to improve education quality.
- Design policies to attract foreign talent into knowledge-based sectors.
- Continue enhancing the investment climate to support productivity and long-term growth.

### Subjects and keywords
- Subjects: Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), Banking, Commercial banks, Credit, Crime, Financial institutions, Foreign banks, Money, Nonperforming loans
- Keywords: accommodative financial conditions, Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), asset quality, bank, Caribbean, Central America, Commercial banks, CR, Credit, financial condition, Foreign banks, Global, income level, ISCR, Nonperforming loans, North America, NPL ratio, NPLS affect bank lending, Panama, South America

*International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept. "Panama: Selected Issues", IMF Staff Country Reports 2019, 012 (2019), accessed 9/10/2026, https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484394069.002*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Country Report**
  - [Country Report (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/cr/2019/cr1912-panamasi.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Country Report (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/cr/2019/cr1912-panamasi.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/cr/issues/2019/01/17/panama-selected-issues-46529_