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Country profile / PAN

Panama

Use this profile to establish Panama’s economic scale, locate its financial structure among reporting peers, trace credit and crisis history, and read its sovereign and external balance sheets. Follow any section into the dedicated module, or audit the primary source cited beside it.

Latest government debt
56.6%
2024 (General govt (IMF GDD))
Crisis years by type
31
2 banking, 0 currency, 29 sovereign-debt
Private credit by banks
83.1%
GFDD, 2021
BIS credit-cycle data
Not covered
not in the BIS credit statistics
Nonperforming loans (current)
2.4%
IMF FSI, 2025

Cross-border banking exposure: how much BIS-reporting banks lend to Panama.

Economic scale

Panama's population rose over the reported history

Panama’s population, real GDP per capita, and total-factor productivity from the Penn World Table, 1950–2023.
Population
4.4623
millions
0.002.004.006.0019502023
Real GDP per capita (PPP)
3693523
2021 US$, chained
0.00200004000019502023
Total factor productivity
1.0623
index, this country's 2021 = 1
0.801.001.201.401.6019692023
A scale reference for every other section on this page, not a financial-risk series in its own right.

Source: Penn World Table 11.0 (Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer 2015). License: CC BY 4.0. Methodology

Crisis history

Full crisis atlas →

2 episodes between 1932 and 1996. Consecutive crisis years are merged into episodes (gaps of up to two years bridged); each links to its episode page.

BankingCurrencySovereign debt

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 | Reinhart-Rogoff (HBS BFFS) | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory Database | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database. License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST); cite all five chronologies. Methodology

Early-warning gauge

Model and evaluation →

The crisis early-warning model (ews-1.0) scores Panama from realized data only: features dated 2024 or earlier, no forecasts and no nowcasts. 4 of the model’s 7 features are observed here, and the score places Panama in decile 4 of 10 among the 196 countries carrying a current row.

Onset probability, 1-3 years
4.2%
logistic model, prediction year 2025
Decile of current scores
4 of 10
196 countries scored
Features observed
4 of 7
dated 2024 or earlier
Largest signed contributions vs training average
  • Credit-to-GDP gap (pp) [missing] -0.39
  • Real credit growth, 3y (%) [missing] -0.27
  • CPI inflation (%) = 0.7 -0.12

An early-warning score flags a macro-financial configuration that resembles past pre-crisis years; it is not a forecast for Panama. At the published operating threshold (p ≥ 12.5%), the era-blocked out-of-sample backtest gives precision 16.9% and recall 25.7%: most flags did not precede an onset, and most onset years went unflagged.

Source: Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2026), IMF WP/26/94 | BIS credit-to-GDP gap and total credit (Data Portal) | Global Macro Database (release 2026_06). License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST). Model ews-1.0, data vintage jst-r6(2020);lv-2026-wp2694(2023);bis-gap(2025-Q4);gmd-2026_06(cut2024). Methodology

Financial structure

Panama's private bank credit is above the reporting-economy median

Annual measures of Panama’s depth (private credit and deposits) and soundness (Z-score, nonperforming loans and concentration), in percentages and index points across the available World Bank GFDD history.
Private credit by banks
83.121
% of GDP
0.0050.010019602021
Bank deposits
57.421
% of GDP
0.0025.050.075.010019602021
Bank Z-score
40.421
index (higher = sounder)
25.030.035.040.045.020002021
Nonperforming loans
2.0120
% of gross loans
0.001.002.003.004.0020002020
Bank concentration
43.821
% assets, top 3 banks
20.040.060.080.020002021
GFDD values end in 2021 (the dataset’s last release year); a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the sector standing still.

Source: World Bank Global Financial Development Database (Sep 2022). License: CC BY 4.0. Values end 2021 (GFDD's last release year). Methodology

Financial development

Panama's financial development index is above the reporting-economy median

Panama’s annual 0-to-1 IMF composite of financial-system depth, access and efficiency, split between institutions (banks, insurers and funds) and markets (stocks and bonds). Methodology: Svirydzenka (2016), IMF WP/16/5.
Financial development index
0.4720
index, 0 to 1
0.200.300.400.5019802020
Financial institutions index
0.5220
index, 0 to 1
0.300.400.500.6019802020
Financial markets index
0.4120
index, 0 to 1
0.100.200.300.400.5019802020
The IMF’s served series end in 2020; a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the system standing still. The six depth/access/efficiency subindices are in the underlying dataset but not charted here.

Source: IMF Financial Development Index (IMF.MCM:FDI) | Svirydzenka (2016), IMF Working Paper WP/16/5. License: IMF, public open data with "Source: IMF, Financial Development Index" attribution. 0-1 scale; served values end 2020 (183 economies). Methodology

Bank soundness

Panama's nonperforming-loan ratio is below the reporting-economy median

Annual IMF deposit-taker ratios for Panama, in percent through 2025. The core indicators cover capital adequacy (regulatory and Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets), asset quality (nonperforming loans), earnings (return on assets and equity), and liquidity (liquid assets to total assets).
Regulatory capital
16.025
% of risk-weighted assets
14.016.018.020.020052025
Tier 1 capital
16.625
% of risk-weighted assets
12.014.016.018.020052025
Nonperforming loans
2.3925
% of gross loans
1.502.002.503.003.5020052025
Return on assets
2.0225
% (annualized)
0.001.002.003.0020052025
Return on equity
16.625
% (annualized)
5.0010.015.020.020052025
Liquid assets
10.925
% of total assets
6.008.0010.012.014.020052025
The World Bank GFDD soundness series above end in 2021. IMF FSI coverage varies by indicator and year.

Source: IMF Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI). License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF, Financial Soundness Indicators" attribution. Methodology

Financial inclusion

How much of the adult population (age 15+) is inside the financial system, from the World Bank Global Findex 2025: account ownership, digital payments, and formal saving and borrowing. Findex is a survey run in waves, not annually, so each card is a wave sparkline with the latest reading and the change since the first wave available for Panama.

Account ownership
64.12024
% age 15+
5 waves, 2011-2024+39.2 pp since 2011
Made or received a digital payment
52.12024
% age 15+
4 waves, 2014-2024+19.0 pp since 2014
Saved at a financial institution
27.52024
% age 15+
5 waves, 2011-2024+15.0 pp since 2011
Borrowed from a financial institution
14.72024
% age 15+
4 waves, 2014-2024-2.8 pp since 2014

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025. License: CC BY 4.0. Survey waves; percent of adults age 15+. Methodology

Credit cycle

Panama is not in the BIS credit-statistics reporting set, so no credit-to-GDP gap, debt-service ratio, or property-price series is available here.

Source: BIS credit and debt-service statistics | BIS residential property prices. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

Policy, shadow and exchange rates

Panama is in none of the BIS central-bank policy-rate set (48 economies), the Krippner shadow short rate set, or the BIS real broad effective-exchange-rate set (63 economies), so no monetary-stance or exchange-rate series is available here.

Source: BIS central bank policy rates | BIS effective exchange rates | Krippner shadow short rate estimates (LJK Limited). License: BIS series are free with "Source: BIS" attribution; Krippner shadow-rate estimates are cited as model estimates from LJK Limited and are not republished as bulk data. Methodology

External position

Panama runs a current-account surplus

Panama’s annual external position through each source’s latest observation: the current-account balance (IMF, percent of GDP), the net international investment position and total official reserves (both shown as US-dollar levels, in billions, because the IMF IIP and World Bank reserve series carry dollar values rather than ratios), the degree of capital-account openness (the Chinn-Ito index, 0 closed to 1 open), and remittance inflows. A positive current account or net-IIP reading is a surplus/creditor position; a negative one is a deficit/debtor position. Each panel appears only where Panama has that series.
Current-account balance
0.6624
% of GDP
-20.0-10.00.0010.020.019802024
Net international investment position
-77.725
US$ billion (level)
-100-75.0-50.0-25.00.0019952025
Total reserves
6.2425
US$ billion
0.005.0010.019602025
Capital-account openness
1.002023
index, 0 = closed, 1 = open
annual, 1970 to 2023
Remittance inflows
0.532024
US$ billion
annual, 1977 to 2024

Remittance inflows are shown as external-flow context (household income received from abroad), not a FinObservatory risk score.

Current account and net IIP: IMF BOP/IIP, to 2025. Reserves: World Bank FI.RES.TOTL.CD, to 2025. Capital-account openness ends 2023. Remittance inflows end 2024; shown as context, not a risk score.

Source: IMF Balance of Payments and IIP Statistics | World Bank, Total reserves (FI.RES.TOTL.CD). License: IMF and World Bank, free with attribution ("Source: IMF"; World Bank reserves CC BY 4.0). Methodology

Source: Chinn-Ito index of capital-account openness (Chinn and Ito 2006). License: research use with citation only (Chinn-Ito); not for commercial redistribution. Methodology

Source: World Bank / KNOMAD Migration and Remittances Data. License: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank / KNOMAD). Methodology

International borrowing

General government are Panama's largest reported international issuer sector

Quarterly outstanding international debt securities issued by Panama's residents, by issuer sector, in US-dollar billions from 1972-Q1 to 2026-Q1. “All issuers” is the total; the government, financial-corporation and non-financial-corporation lines are its components, each shown only where the BIS reports it.
All issuers
$70.3B
2026-Q1
General government
$36.1B
2026-Q1
Financial corporations
$7.5B
2026-Q1
Non-financial corporations
$26.7B
2026-Q1
All issuersGeneral governmentFinancial corporationsNon-financial corporations
International issues only (residence basis); domestic issuance is excluded, so this is not the country's total debt-securities outstanding.

Source: BIS debt securities statistics (international debt securities). License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

Income and wealth inequality

Cross-country inequality →

How concentrated Panama’s income and wealth are. Top shares come from WID.world on equal-split adults (each adult in a couple assigned half the couple’s total); income (a flow) and wealth (a stock) are shown as distinct measures and never combined into one figure. The Gini coefficients are survey-based, on a 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (maximal concentration) scale: the World Bank PIP survey Gini and, where covered, the OECD disposable-income (post-tax, post-transfer) Gini. Each reading shows its year and, where a cross-country distribution exists, where Panama sits among reporting economies. WID extends its most recent years by extrapolation, so a latest reading is an estimate.

Top 10% income share
52.1%
WID pre-tax national income, equal-split adults, 2024
216 economies; median 47.0%; ranks above 175 of 215
Top 1% income share
22.0%
WID pre-tax national income, equal-split adults, 2024
216 economies; median 16.1%; ranks above 185 of 215
Top 10% wealth share
64.6%
WID net personal wealth, equal-split adults, 2024
216 economies; median 61.5%; ranks above 163 of 215
PIP survey Gini
0.497
World Bank PIP, income, 2024
171 economies; median 0.352; ranks above 161 of 170

Source: WID.world (World Inequality Database) | World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform | OECD Income Distribution Database. License: WID.world and OECD IDD: display-with-attribution (owner no-redistribution ruling); World Bank PIP: CC BY 4.0. Top shares on equal-split adults; recent WID years are extrapolated. Ginis are survey-based and measure a different object from the fiscal top shares. Methodology

Latest government debt 56.6% of GDP (2024, General govt (IMF GDD)). Peak 112.7% in 1990. This is below the 80.7% median at which 2000+ sovereign crises began (a comparison, not a prediction).

Latest debt
56.6%
2024
Peak debt
112.7%
1990
Sovereign crises
2
last 1996

Source: IMF Global Debt Database | IMF World Economic Outlook. License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF" attribution. Methodology

Reading this profile

  • This page composes existing FinObservatory layers; it introduces no new data. Every figure is reproducible from the source cited in its section. See the methodology for the composition and each source’s coverage and staleness.
  • The peer line on a card (“N economies report; median…”) places this country’s latest reading among every reporting economy’s own latest reading for the same indicator, under the same filters. Latest years differ where reporting lags. It is a descriptive position (a count and a median), not a score; for indicators where lower is safer, such as nonperforming loans, a high position is not a good one.
  • The layers stop at different dates: the World Bank GFDD depth and soundness series end 2021 and the IMF Financial Development Index ends 2020, but the IMF FSI soundness panel is current (annual through 2024–2025 where reported); the Global Findex inclusion series are surveyed in waves and reach 2024; IMF debt runs to 2024; the Penn World Table runs 1950–2023; and the BIS statistics are the most current (credit through 2025, residential property to 2026Q1, and the policy rate and effective exchange rate into 2026 where reported). Krippner's month-end shadow short rate estimates, where this page has them, run 1995-01-31 to 2026-06-30 and are model estimates rather than observed policy rates. The external accounts reach 2025 (IMF balance-of-payments and reserves), 2024 (remittance inflows) and 2023 (capital-account openness). A quiet recent tail in one section can simply be where that source stops.
  • Where a source has no reading for Panama, the section says so in words instead of drawing a chart. A stated absence means the underlying dataset does not cover this country, not that the value is zero.

Ask the analyst about this page

Grounded answers with citations; the model never generates a number.