(Prensa.com) Panama’s public debt will amount to $15.3 billion by 2015 according to report presented yesterday by Minister of Economy and Finance Alberto Vallarino to the National Assembly.But the debt amount will actually decrease in comparison to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the minister said. He is projecting that ratio will decrease to 34.3 percent. For that to happen, the GDP in 2015 will have to be $44.6 billion, an increase of almost $20 billion from its current level.
Currently, the deficit is $12.2 billion, an increase of $1.4 billion since the administration of Ricardo Martinelli began.
In its strategic plan, the government projected the debt to be $12.5 billion in 2014, but according to the estimates submitted yesterday by the minister, that number is now $14.8 billion.
Economist Raúl Moreira called the increase in debt “highly significant and worrying.”