Economy & Business - April 2026

NICARAGUA | Net FDI up. On 18 March Nicaragua’s central bank (BCN) released new figures showing that net foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country totalled US$1.50bn in 2025, up 7.6% on 2024. Meanwhile gross FDI came to US$3.06bn, down 4.0% on the same period in 2024. According to the BCN report, net FDI flows represented 6.8% of GDP (down from 7.1% in 2024). As regards a breakdown by sector, manufacturing received US$472.0m (31.4% of the total), up 11.0% on 2024; energy and mining received US$466.5m (31.1% of the total), up 77.1%; and financial intermediation totalled US$375.6m (25.0% of the total), up 32.9% on 2024. As regards sources of net FDI, Panama accounted for 25.5% of the total followed by Barbados (17.5%) and the US (13.1%).