Cortizo and Carrizo leave Panama in debt

The next government that will come to power on July 1, 2024 will face a very difficult financial situation, which is a consequence of the large debt that the government administration of the president República, Laurentino Cortizo and his vice president José Gabriel Carrizo.

It is important to emphasize that upon leaving, the Government would put the country even more in debtDeficit in this year’s budget for 2024.

In 2023, there was a budget deficit of 3%, which will certainly be the same or more this year, as a result of the bad economic situation that the current one leaves behind. administration.

Evidence of bad management in economic matters of electricity administration, is the fact that the ruling duo is Cortizo-Carrizo It continues to saddle the country with enormous debt and is now preparing a record $3.5 billion bond offering to balance its budget.

This is just 70 days before the presidential elections in Panama.

It should be noted that the total debt as of January of this year reflected a balance of USD 46,894.5 million and External public debt amounted to 39,889.6 million dollars.

While the last budget of the PRD government amounts to 30,690.4 million dollars.’

20 dollars

1.282 million increased the total debt of the government of Cortizo and Carrizo.

69

days from today remain for general elections in the entire state territory.

From July 1, 2019 to January last year, the total debt increased to $46,894.5 million, or by $20,282.5 million. External debt of the Cortiz government increased by 19,283.6 million dollars.

These figures will have to be increased by 3,500 million dollars provided by the placement of bonds, which would increase the total debt to 50,394.5 million dollars, of which 23,782.5 million dollars would be from The ruling duo of Cortizo-Carrizo.

For Olmedo Estrada, former president National College of Economists and professor university, 2024 represents an important challenge, because there are several situations that affect the economy.

One of these situation according to the expert, is the closure of the copper mine, which represents a heavy blow to state finances, because this year that income will not be in the state coffers.

On the contrary, closing the mine will be a cost, this if Panama must provide the means to make this happen.

“We are talking about 100 million dollars less, about money that is not even in the budget. I don’t know what will happen if It is Panama that must intervene for the costs of closing the mine”, said the expert.

In addition, Estrada points out that, on the other hand, there are the revenues from the Panama Canal, which are also affected by climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, so there is talk of HRK 700 million less that they will receive this year as a result of this activity.

“If we add to this the low growth of the economywhich is already forecasted to be below 2 percent this year, it would be another element that would further increase the fiscal problem because revenues will certainly not be able to cover expenditures,” he said.

Because of that, The current government had to go to issue bonds to cover the fiscal deficit, and it is predicted that whoever enters from July 1 will also have to borrow money.

For his part, economist Juan Jované stated that the current administration had poor management of the economic situation in the country, something that was reflected in the large amount of money they borrowed to cover the government salary.