Caribbean & Central America - 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%).

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | Remittances down. On 15 March the Dominican Republic’s central bank (BCRD) released new figures showing that remittances to the country totalled US$887.6m in February, down from US$917.0m in February 2025 and US$982.8m in January 2026. Remittances in the first two months of 2026 reached US$1.87bn, up 1.0% on the same period in 2025. The BCRD attributes the slowdown in February to the “complex international environment”, highlighting that “conflict in the Middle East has driven up prices of oil and its derivatives, resulting in greater inflationary pressures and reducing household disposable income”. According to the BCRD, 83.4% of remittances to the Dominican Republic in February were from the US, 5.9% from Spain, 0.9% from Haiti, 1.2% from Italy, and 1.0% from Switzerland, among other countries.

Central America & Caribbean: inflation rate
Percentage variation (year-on-year)

Central America & Caribbean: GDP growth (%)
Quarterly figures are year-on-year growth