*Panama’s Finance & Economy Minister Felipe Chapman has said that the government led by President José Raúl Mulino is maintaining a GDP growth forecast of 4% for this year, despite the unrest and strikes over new reforms to the social security system (CSS), inter alia. These led banana company Chiquita Panamá, the local subsidiary of multinational banana company Chiquita Brands, to announce mass layoffs in the country’s top export sector. The 2024 GDP growth forecast would be up from 2.9% growth in 2024 on World Bank (WB) figures – a figure which was down from 7.4% in 2023 and reflected challenges such as “the suspension of activities at a copper mining company” – an allusion to the shuttering of the massive copper mine Cobre Panamá in 2023 – and “recurring droughts that affected transit through the Panama Canal”, according to the WB.
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