Technical Note on Poverty and Equity : Panama Poverty and Equity Report 2024

Overview & Synopsis

Over the past three decades, Panama has achieved sustained economic growth, which has driven significant job creation. Panama’s GDP per capita increased from 25.7 percent of the level of the United States in 1990 to 48.6 percent in 2023, leading per capita income convergence in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The country’s GDP growth averaged 5.7 percent between 1990 and 2023, resulting in remarkable job creation, with total employment nearly tripling over the past three decades, surpassing job growth in both the region and high-income economies. A dynamic private sector absorbed the expanding working-age population (people aged 15 and older), which increased from 1.5 million in 1991 to 3.4 million in 2023. As a result, the labor force participation rate rose from 48 percent to 62 percent over the same period, as reported in the Systematic Country Diagnostics Update 2023 (World Bank 2023).