Panamanians and entrepreneurs owed ​​$80 billion

The Panamanian private sector has a debt of 80,000 million dollars that can be handled properly as long as the economy remains stable and decrease bureaucracy in procedures for companies.

According to information from Efe, this debt is four times greater than the public debt, with a default rate if over 90 days of 7.4%, but in good health from the World Bank view.

Official figures show that public debt until December of last year totaled more than 20 thousand 221 million dollars, while the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, reached more than 49 thousand 165 million dollars.

According to Efe, until last December, the balance of private credit in Panama was $40 billion for individuals and $40 billion in business.

Currently, the Panamanian Credit Association (APC) has a history of over one thousand financial institutions including banks, credit unions and businesses that account for over 90% nationwide.

As an individual, in this case more than half of the population, account for two million Panamanians and 200 thousand foreigners registered in the institution.

For the former president of the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep), Elisa Suarez, when the private company invests, is a recovery in the short and medium term, that will quickly help circulate capital in the economy.

She stressed that the important thing in this debt, "is that we have the capacity as a private company to make payments on those debts in the appropriate time."

However, she noted that it is important that the paperwork that have been generated around the issue of private investment to be made with sufficient flexibility to enable the company to pay the financial institution at the time when it was actually hired.

She warned that otherwise it will be difficult for the private company to cope with the debt. "The problem is not how I indebted, the problem is how I can pay and how quickly am able to afford it", noted the businesswoman.

According to economist Raul Bethancourt, the amount of indebtedness of Panamanians means they are asking for more loans to cope with the constant increase in the cost of living.

He recalled that although the price of fuel has gone down and there is a significant savings, it can not afford to Panamanians to cover their expenses. He emphasized the international financial crisis and said that if this continues, it could cause the country to play a financial disaster, for which we are not prepared.

Meanwhile, Giovanni Fletcher, president of the Panamanian Institute of Rights of Consumers and Users (Ipadecu) considers that the debt policy with consumers is that all life, advertising calls the consumer to spend more than it really You can invest due to their economic capacity.

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Panamá tiene un sistema financiero bastante transparente, según APC

La directora ejecutiva de la Asociación Panameña de Crédito (APC), Giovanna Cardellicchio, dijo a Acan-Efe que la APC está "en un nivel

bien alto de la calificación de burós de crédito que hace el Banco Mundial, porque hemos cumplido con todas las regulaciones".

Cardellicchio coincide con los especialistas al considerar que el problema de la deuda empieza cuando se presentan atrasos.

A su juicio, “Panamá tiene un sistema bastante transparente, donde las instituciones tienen buenos mecanismos de control y creo que el sistema financiero panameño es un ejemplo para el mundo, no hemos tenido situaciones de crisis como otros países", argumentó.