LatinNews Daily - 12 August 2020

* Panama’s health ministry has announced that car dealers, beauty salons, and retailers will be permitted to reopen from 17 August onwards, after the reproduction rate of the coronavirus (Covid-19) dropped from 1.13 to 1.07. Barber shops and salons can open with appointments at 50% capacity, a move set to benefit 2,572 firms. Retailers can open for online shopping, and shoppers can pick up merchandise from stores, but they are not allowed inside. Private construction projects can resume, and Panamanians can return from abroad, observing quarantine on arrival. The country’s 164 NGOs can also reopen. Having suspended non-essential economic activity on 15 March, the government announced the phased reopening of the economy on 13 May. The latest forecast from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean (Eclac) expects Panama’s GDP to contract 6.5% in 2020.