Caribbean & Central America - October 2013 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Investor confidence down: On 30 September Guatemala’s central bank (Banguat) released a survey which found that investor confidence was at just 36.11%. While an improvement on the 31.37 % registered in August, this is still well off the 80.77% registered in March, two months after the government of President Otto Pérez Molina took office. Banguat president, Edgar Barquín, attributed the fall in confidence to crime, the lack of legal certainty for investors and social conflicts. The Banguat survey comes less than a month after the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) released its latest Global Competitiveness report on 4 September, which saw Guatemala fall three places down to 86 out of the total 148 countries. The WEF report notes that “Despite fairly well-functioning goods (66th) and financial markets (43rd), thanks to its openness to trade and a sound banking system (17th), the country continues to suffer from security-related and corruption costs that hinder the functioning of institutions”. The WEF ranks Guatemala below Panama (40) and Costa Rica (54); but above El Salvador (97), Nicaragua (99) and Honduras (111).

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