* Nicaragua’s central bank (BCN) has released new figures which show that the country’s GDP in the first quarter of 2023 rose by 3.5% in year-on-year terms, up from growth of 2.4% in the previous quarter. GDP was also up by 1.2% compared with the previous quarter. As regards sectoral growth, year-on-year growth in Q1 2023 was driven by increased economic activity in hotels & restaurants (+27.5%), mining & quarrying (+13.3%), transport & communications (+6.8%), trade (+5.6%), and other services (+5.2%). Nicaragua’s GDP grew by 3.8% in 2022.