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Just two years ago, on a sweltering day in the Peruvian capital, Lima, Silvana was telling me that she couldn’t remember how long she’d been selling pineapple juice on Miguel Grau Avenue. “I was perhaps fifteen? I tried to do something else, but this is the only thing I can do.” I wonder, now, how she is coping during the Covid-19 pandemic, if she is safe. It will be a long time before I can visit in person, so I call.
Her number is not connected. Perhaps she has changed it; I hope so. The pandemic has been disastrous for workers like Silvana in Latin America’s informal economy the bread sellers on the streets in La Paz, the cardboard collectors in Buenos Aires, the domestic workers in Santiago, the fruit sellers on the streets of Lima and she will have encountered many hardships since we last met.
The economy of Panama, one of the largest in Central America, suffered a historic contraction of 17.9% in 2020 compared to 2019 due to the effects of the pandemic, though authorities expect a rebound this year supported by investment and consumption.
It was a historic drop, exceeding that recorded in 1988, when Panama’s GDP collapsed by 13.38%. In addition, it exceeded the IMF’s 9% fall forecast and the 11% forecast advanced by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
“During 2020, the total production of goods and services in the Panamanian economy, measured through GDP, reflected a contraction of 17.9% compared to 2019,” said the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, based on figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Census.
The annual report “Social Panorama of Latin America 2020” will be unveiled at a virtual press conference by the United Nations organization’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, on Thursday, March 4.
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