The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a $40 million loan for Panama to expand and improve potable water and sewerage systems in Panama City and the central and western provinces.

Honduras will produce 6.4 percent more coffee in the upcoming 2010-11 season as farmers, spurred on by high prices, buy more fertilizers and expand their coffee growing land, the head of the national coffee association said.

The budget increase requested by the Guatemalan administration is urgently needed to deal with the effects of the worst rainy season in the past 60 years in Guatemala, President Alvaro Colon affirmed.

Guatemala’s Grupo Pharma opened the first 15 of its 200 Farmacias de la Comunidad planned for El Salvador.

If the number of foreign tourists to Costa Rica have increased so far this year, where are they staying during their visit to the country? So ask hoteliers, who claim that no increase in their bookings has been noted since 2009.

Latin American and Caribbean exports are forecasted to grow 21.4 percent this year propped mainly by South American commodities.

Costa Rica’s central bank plans to buy as much as $50 million a month in the foreign-exchange market.

Though well-known among merchants from all over the world, Panama’s province of Colon is a mystery outside trade circles. However, it houses the world’s second largest free zone.

South Korean firms should strive to expand their businesses in El Salvador, where about 20 are already operating there, said the Salvadoran ambassador in Seoul, Hector Gonzalez Urrutia said.

Canada and Costa Rica have agreed to work toward modernizing the existing bilateral free-trade agreement, announced Peter Van Loan, Canada’s minister of international trade, who just concluded his five-day, four-country visit to Latin America.

The coffee industry of Honduras aims to close the 2009-2010 crop year with record returns.

Representatives of the Central American countries are meeting in El Salvador for a preparatory meeting on the world climate conference to be held in Mexico this November.

Moody's Investors Service reviewed the ratings of Banco de Bogotá with a view to a downgrade, following the bank’s acquisition of BAC Credomatic from GE Capital.

Though a precise date has yet to be fixed, Guatemala’s Banco Industrial is to open next month in El Salvador.

• Costa Rica’s economy falls just short of a standstill
• Panama agrees to amend rules on imports to establish zero tariff on computers
• Deal with Singapore adds to Panama’s efforts to be removed from OECD blacklist
• Guatemala’s oil imports bill increased by 17 percent in the first half of the year
• Taiwanese bank First Commercial decides to wind up operations in El Salvador
• Panama launches second phase of $27,4 million project to improve David air terminal
• Costa Rica’s tourist industry still struggles to overcome the 2009 economic crisis
• Panama in no hurry to modernize its mining laws
• Honduras wins approval as beef exporter to the United States
• Canada’s federal government will endorse trade deal with Panama this fall
• Chiquita launches Costa Rican plant to convert fruit pulp into energy and fertilizer
• Nicaragua’s government says IBM shows interest in talks for return to the country
• Companies and consumers still lack confidence in El Salvador’s incipient recovery
• Puerto Cortés in Honduras aims for $225 million plan to make top port
• Purdy Motor aims to sell one of its businesses in Mexico because of narco violence
• Two groups left in the running for the Panama metro
• Costa Rica sets the terms for cellular phone tender
• Coffee futures close to 13-year high amid tight supplies until late this year
• Hidalgo Bancorp to launch $40 million fund for projects in clean technology
• Investment regenerate Central American ports in bid to remain competitive
• Honduras shows big increases in volume and sales of bananas for export
• Guatemala's cardamom production forecast remains steady for this year
• Frontier Airlines to launch new seasonal route to Liberia, Costa Rica
• Costa Rica ‘will double mobile subscribers within four years’
• Brazilians rev up with luxury shoe exports from Nicaragua