LatinNews Daily - 17 June 2026

*Panama’s national statistics institute (Inec) has released new figures showing that Panama’s economy expanded 4.8% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. This is unchanging on Q4 2025 but up from 3.9% in Q3 2025 and 3.4% in Q2, and down from 5.2% in Q1 2025. According to Inec, growth in 2025 was driven by wholesale and retail trade (+6.4%), and construction (+6.6%), among other sectors. Agriculture posted a decline of 4.3% due to an 80.6% fall in the volume of banana exports as a result of a strike in the sector last year, amid a general strike, while financial services were also down by 0.6%. Also yesterday, Inec released new inflation figures which showed that the monthly inflation rate in May was 0.3%, down from 1.1% in April, 0.9% in March, and 0.1% in February. The May inflation rate was driven by transport (+1.5%) due to the increases in the categories of national and international air transport (+10.1%), and fuel and lubricants for personal transport (+4.1%) as a result of the rise in petrol prices due to the war in the Middle East. Year-on-year inflation in May was 2.5%, up from 2.1% in April, 0.8% in March, 0.0% in February and 0.3% in January.

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