LatinNews Daily - 23 July 2025

*Panama’s national statistics institute (Inec) has reported that Panama’s monthly indicator of economic activity (Imae) was up 2.95% in May 2025 compared with May 2024. However, this compares with 4.15% year-on-year growth in April, 7.88% in March, 5.04% in February, and 6.69% in January. According to Inec, accumulated growth in the first five months of 2025 was 5.48% compared with the same period in 2024. It said that the May growth rate was driven mainly by sectors like transport, storage, and communications, financial intermediation, and construction, among other sectors. However, it notes that agriculture was among the sectors to register a decline (although did not provide figures). This no doubt reflects the impact of the strike earlier this year by workers from banana company Chiquita Panamá, the local subsidiary of multinational banana company Chiquita Brands, amid more general protests over new reforms to the social security system (CSS), inter alia. Earlier this month Panama’s trade and industry ministry released new figures showing that while bananas remain the country’s leading export, the category accounted for 12.0% of total exports in the five-month period, down from 17.5% previously. Last week Panama’s government led by President José Raúl Mulino announced that it was maintaining a GDP growth forecast of 4% for this year, despite the unrest and strikes.

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