The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nicaragua registered a growth of 2.6% in the third quarter of 2022, less than 4.1% in the same quarter of 2021, the Nicaraguan Central Bank reported this Friday.
“The economy continued to show a positive performance, with GDP registering year-on-year growth of 2.6% (4.5% in the previous quarter),” the state issuing bank said in a report.
With this result, the accumulated growth as of September 2022 was 4.1%, and the average annual variation rate was 5.6%, according to the preliminary estimate.
Nicaragua’s GDP grew 5.4% from January to March, and 4.5% from April to June, which allowed the accumulated average (January to September 2022) to stand at 4.1%, and at 5 .6% annual average (of the last 12 months as of September 2021), according to the information.
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The Central Bank explained that GDP in the third quarter of 2022 decreased by 1.2% compared to the level registered in the previous quarter.
Due to the production approach, the interannual evolution of GDP between last July and September was due to growth in the activities of hotels and restaurants (27.9%), transport and communications (11.5%), financial intermediation and related services (6.9%), manufacturing industry (6.7%), and commerce (6.5%), among other economic activities, he highlighted.
Using the spending approach, the interannual variation in quarterly GDP was determined by joint impulses from net external demand and internal demand.
“The contribution of net external demand was generated as a result of the growth of exports (8.5%) and imports (1.5%). For its part, the contribution of domestic demand was mainly due to the growth in consumption (5.6%)”, he pointed out.
Nicaragua projects growth of between 3.5% and 4.5% of GDP in 2022, the second consecutive year of growth after three years of closing with a red balance, with inflation between 10% and 11%, according to the Central Bank.
In 2023, the Government of Nicaragua foresees a growth of 3% to 4% of its economy, with inflation of 5% to 6%.
The Nicaraguan economy had contracted by an average of -3.03% per year in the 2018-2020 period.
GDP decreased by 2% in 2020, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic and the damage caused by hurricanes Eta and Iota, in November of that year, according to the monetary authority.
In 2019 it fell 3.7% and 3.4% in 2018, due to the sociopolitical crisis that has affected the country for 57 months, according to the issuer.
