Weekly Report - 2 March 2004

CENTRAL AMERICA | Tourism boom expected to continue. The Central American Tourism Agency (Cata) predicts that this year tourist arrivals in Central America will increase by 9%, to 5.6m. In 2003 the subregion received 5.1m visitors, an increase of 13.1% on 2002. The WTO had noted in its review of last year that Central America was the only area registering clear growth in tourism.

PANAMA | Health `privatisation' resisted. Panama's medical association, the AMN, has launched a campaign against the health ministry's `transformation' drive, on the grounds that it has started handing out concessions to NGOs and private firms for the provision of healthcare in indigenous areas and those of difficult access. The `transformation' drive, which is being financed with loans from the IDB and the World Bank, is being portrayed by the AMN as `privatisation by stealth.'

COSTA RICA | Belt-tightening threatened. The government has been threatening huge spending cuts if congress does not quickly approve the tax reform legislation it has submitted. Finance minister Alberto Dent Zeledón says that the government has already committed 119% of its expected revenues, and that every month that passes without the approval of new taxes translates into a shortfall of US$34.5m. He says he will have to cut about US$179m from projected spending, of which US$57.5m would come from the public works budget — a key instrument in the effort to reverse the slowdown in growth.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | Power supply improving. Power generation had increased by the end of last week to the point that it was covering about 65% of normal consumption. The system was receiving 1,139MW in the off-peak period and 1,512MW in peak hours. An additional 220MW were expected to come onstream during the weekend.