Guatemala: Economic activity continues to increase at the outset of the second quarter

Data from Banguat’s monthly index of economic activity (IMAE, Indice Mensual de la Actividad Económica) showed that in April economic activity contracted 0.7% from the prior month, a sharper downturn than March’s 0.1% drop.

On a year-on-year basis, however, growth in economic activity edged up from the prior month’s revised 2.6% (previously reported: +3.0% year-on-year) to 2.8% in April. The acceleration came on a broad-based improvement that saw expansions in numerous sectors of the domestic economy, with the manufacturing, transport and storage and communication sectors performing especially well. Meanwhile, annual average growth in economic activity inched down from March’s revised 2.7% (previously reported: +2.8%) to 2.6%.

Guatemala GDP Forecast

Banguat expects growth of between 3.0%–3.8% in 2018 and 3.1%–4.1% in 2019. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists see growth of 3.2% in 2018, which is unchanged from last month’s forecast. For 2019, our panelists expect growth to clock in at 3.3%.