TEGUCIGALPA – The Central Bank of Honduras said Friday that it expects the country’s economy to contract at record speed this year, falling 8% to its most recent down revision.
As is the case around the world, coronavirus lockdowns are the main culprits for the bleak outlook.
The record contraction of 7 to 8% pushes more Hondurans into the ranks of the poor, reaching 62% of the population until the end of 2020.
Approximately 9.3 million other people live in Honduras, the most populous country in Central America after Guatemala.
In May, the central bank predicted an economic downturn this year of between 2.9% and 3.9%.The bank had expected modest growth in the past.Last year, the Honduran economy grew by 2.7%.
The bank’s incumbent, Wilfredo Cerrato, said in a virtual presentation Friday that the last record contraction occurred in 1954 when the Honduran economy was going through 6.4% after a paralyzing discontent on banana plantations that went through non-easy strike personnel to major situations of U.S. corporations that dominated at the time.The area.
To date, the Honduran government has reported more than 41,000 coronavirus infections and some 1,300 showed deaths attributed to respiratory illnesses through the virus.
(Report via Gustavo Palencia; Written via David Alire García Edited via Leslie Adler)
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