LatinNews Daily - 03 July 2026

*El Salvador’s central bank (BCR) has released new figures showing that the country’s GDP was up 4.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. This is up from 3.8% in Q4 2025, 4.0% in Q2 2025, and 2.6% in Q1 2025, but down from 5.2% in Q3 2025. Overall, the country’s GDP expanded 3.9% in 2025. According to the BCR, economic growth in the first quarter of 2026 was “more than double” the average growth rate of the first quarters of the last 17 years (2.2%). It attributes the result to growth in 17 of 19 economic activities registered. In particular, it singled out construction, which was up 13.5%, mining and quarrying (+11.1%), transport and storage (+7.6%), and hotels and restaurants (7.1%).  The only two categories to register year-on-year declines were teaching (-0.3%) and agriculture (-0.8%). Despite the claims of strong growth, economic-related concerns remain the chief public gripe according to a survey released on 24 June by the Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública (Iudop), which is affiliated with Jesuit-run Universidad Centroamericana (UCA).

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