The economy should grow by about 4% this year and inflation will come in towards (or perhaps just over) the top end of the government target o a rate between 8.5% and 9.5%. The target was agreed with the IMF which visited Nicaragua at the beginning of September for its latest, and final, monitoring meetings for existing standby agreement. The final disbursement from the IMF is worth US$16m.
More importantly, remittances have risen strongly in the first seven months of 2011. The central bank reported that the inflow of remittances came to US$510m in the first seven months of 2011. This was up 9% on the US$466m that arrived in the same period of 2010. Most of the money comes from the US, but there is also a significant contribution from Costa Rica, where Nicaraguans traditionally harvest cash crops.
Inflation: In August monthly inflation was 0.6%, bringing the rate for the last 12 months to 9.7%.
