Fitch forecasts rebound to 4.5 percent growth in Central America led by Panama

Fitch expects aggregate growth in Central America to decelerate to 4.2 percent in 2012 and recover to 4.5 percent in 2013. Panama is the fastest growing country while El Salvador remains the least dynamic.

Central American countries share common risks to growth, Fitch says. Despite the region's efforts to diversify the sources of its external inflows, the United States remains the single most important provider of hard currency.

Fitch believes there are two distinguishable economic growth patterns in the region. Dynamic growth, in Panama and Costa RIca, and slow, remittance-dependent growth, such as in Guatemala and El Salvador.

Source: Reuters