This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) Update assesses the evolution of Panama’s development challenges and policy priorities since the publication of the SCD in 2015. During the last eight years, Panama has experienced three major changes in its economic and social landscape: (i) economic growth, though still high, has structurally slowed down, affecting job creation and employment quality; (ii) human capital formation has not improved substantially, and the country is struggling to address the significant deterioration in education and health indicators that occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) the government has demonstrated an increasingly acute awareness of the country’s vulnerability to climate change. In addition, Panama’s income per capita had the highest level of convergence within the region, reflecting its strong economic performance over the last three decades. However, the country’s remarkable gains in per capita income have not been accompanied by a commensurate improvement in economic inclusion and institutional quality. In this context, the SCD Update begins by providing an overview of Panama’s recent growth dynamics and poverty trends, before analyzing the country’s development challenges and discussing key policy priorities for achieving sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth.
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- Citation
- “ World Bank . 2024 . Panama Systematic Country Diagnostic . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42236 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Systematic Country Diagnostics Spanish PDFs Available
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1596/42236
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34399131
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34399131
- Pages
- 136
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- Panama
- Report
- 193835
- Rights
- CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
- UNIT
- EFI-LCR-MTI-MacroFiscal (ELCMU)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42236
- date disclosure
- 2024-10-22
- region administrative
- Latin America & Caribbean
