Caribbean & Central America - January 2005

The central bank is confident that the economy will grow by 3.2% in 2005. The government's target is 3.6%. The central bank is forecasting that inflation will not be more than 6%. In 2004 the economy grew by 2.7%, slightly above the forecast of 2.5%. The president of the central bank, Lizardo Sosa, said that the main reason for the better-than-expected performance in 2004 was the improvement in the US economy. In 2003 the Guatemalan economy grew by 2.1%. Exports, which go mostly to the US, were up by 11% in 2004 at US$4.95bn, according to figures from the Asociación de Exportadores de Productos Non-Tradicionales (Agexpront). In 2003 exports had come to US$4.46bn. Agexpront said that the export performance in 2004 was a record. The US buys half Guatemala's exports. The country's next biggest market is the rest of Central America which buys 31% of the total.

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