We have seen significant infrastructure investments here in the Chiriqui province with a new airport being finished in the capital city of David along with a soon to be completed  new highway linking David with Boquete.   While these projects alone will top $200 million, they pale in comparison to the Canal expansion, the new Metro System and highways, convention centers and public works projects being built in Panama City. All of these projects are playing catch up with the explosive growth that Panama has experienced over the last 7 years and will continue to fuel our growth over the next 4 years.  Let us hope that we can continue this growth and track record as these projects/spending wind down and the debts are to be repaid.

I like the comment Don Winner at The Panama Guide made about a recent job fair as it puts in perspective how  incredible the growth rate in GDP has been here in Panama.  “The economy is so hot in Panama, if you’ve got a pulse, you’ve got a job. However having too many jobs and not enough people to fill them can be a bad thing, as companies find they can’t grow or prosper due to a lack of manpower. How long can an economy sustain year on year growth averaging at 7.2% when the population growth rate is only 1.4%? That’s right, over the past nine years, from 2003 through 2011, Panama’s economy has grown by an average of 7.2%, every year. That, my friends, is a truly amazing feat for any national economy. Look at it this way. If you were making $40,000 dollars per year in 2003 and received a 7.2% raise every year for nine years, at the end of 2011 you would be making $74,784 per year. That’s exactly what has happened to the Panamanian economy, in less than a decade. Through the magic of compounding, that works out to an astounding 86.9% growth – almost a doubling of the national economy. By comparison, in the United States over the past nine years the average annual GDP growth has been a sluggish 1.74% – which is why you might not have a job if you live there, because the growth in the economy is just barely outpacing the growth in population.

Here is a good article by Bloomberg showing that Panama and Peru led the areas growth record.

Corporacion Andina de Fomento, the Latin American development lender known as CAF, estimates annual growth of as much as 12 percent in its loan portfolio over the next five years as governments race to make up for years of underinvestment in infrastructure.

Projects including roads and railways will account for more than half of the $11 billion CAF expects to lend this year, Antonio Sosa, vice president for infrastructure, said in an interview in Lima yesterday.

The share of infrastructure projects in CAF’s $15 billion loan portfolio will grow as governments boost investment in transport and energy to keep pace with the region’s economic growth, he said. The International Monetary Fund said April 25 it sees the region growing 3.7 percent this year after rising 4.5 percent last year, led by expansions in Panama and Peru.

“We’re overflowing with requests for financing,” Sosa said. “Countries have to step up investment. Infrastructure systems that were already in a poor state are now congested because of the acceleration in growth.”

CAF, based in Caracas, finances its lending by tapping international capital markets and takes contributions from shareholders, which include the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.