巴拿马：选定问题

PANAMA SELECTED ISSUES This paperonPanamawas prepared by a staff team of the International Monetary Fundas background documentation for the periodic consultation with the member country. Itis based on the information available at the time it was completed onJuly 9, 2025. Copies ofthis report are available to the public fromInternational Monetary Fund•Publication ServicesPO Box 92780•Washington, D.C. 20090Telephone: (202) 623-7430•Fax: (202) 623-7201E-mail:publications@imf.org Web:http://www.imf.org International Monetary FundWashington, D.C. PANAMA SELECTED ISSUES ApprovedByWestern HemisphereDepartment Prepared ByWim FonteyneandMai Hakamada, withanalytical support from Natalia Martinez-Camelo. STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN PANAMA ______________________________________3 A. Introduction _____________________________________________________________________3B. Panama Canal Authority _________________________________________________________4C. Governance of Other State-Owned Enterprises __________________________________5D. Relationship with the Government Budget_______________________________________6E. Reporting and Accountability ____________________________________________________7F. Financial Performance ____________________________________________________________7G. Analysis of Differences Between the ACP and other State-Owned Enterprises ___9H. Privatization ____________________________________________________________________10I. Conclusions______________________________________________________________________10 FIGURE 1. Revenue and Profit for State-Owned Enterprises (2014-2023)____________________8 References_________________________________________________________________________12 ANNEXES I. List of State-Owned Enterprises__________________________________________________13II. Findings of 2021 OECD Assessment_____________________________________________17III. IGCP’S TOP Features of Panamanian State-Owned Enterprises _________________19 REGIONAL INCOME DISPARITIES IN PANAMA _________________________________23 A. Introduction and Background___________________________________________________23B. Regional Overview ______________________________________________________________24C. Differences in Per Capita GDP: A Bookkeeping Perspective _____________________24 D. Factors Explaining the Differences ______________________________________________26E. Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________29 References__________________________________________________________________________________30 STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN PANAMA A.Introduction 1.Panama has a significant state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector. The sector comprises 16non-financial enterprises and 8 financial institutions (see Annex I) that are fully owned by the state.The latter include three financial sector regulators (the superintendencies for banking, insurance andsecurities markets), which have no commercial activities and do not engage in financialintermediation. These regulators are outside the scope of this paper. Panama’s largest SOE, thePanama Canal Authority (Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, ACP), operates under a specific legal andbudgetary framework. It is not among the forementioned 16 non-financial enterprises but will beconsidered here. All these entities are consolidated in the general government budget, but only asubset of them is part of the non-financial public sector (NFPS) for budget purposes. In addition tothese fully-owned entities, Panama holds equity stakes, including majority holdings, in otherenterprises, such as AES Panama and Panama Petroterminal. Compared to other countries in LatinAmerica, the size of Panama’s SOE sector, as measured in SOE liabilities relative to GDP, is about inline with the average.1 2.The sector is diverse. It includes very small entities with a budget below $1 million andlarge corporations with sizeable operations.The ACP is by far the largest SOE. SOE activities spana broad range, from the provision of public services to purely commercial undertakings. Theirperformance has been mixed, and there are significant differences in public satisfaction with theservices provided by SOEs. For example, the metro system and Tocumen Airport are generallyperceived as functioning well, whereas many Panamanians have persistent concerns about watersupply, sewage, and waste collection. 3.On aggregate, the sector does not contribute significantly to the government budget,except for the ACP.Aggregate data (see charts) show that the non-ACP SOEs contributedsignificantly to the budget in the second half of the 2000s, with that contribution exceeding onepercent of GDP in 2008. However, between 2017 and 2022, these SOEs were a drag rather than a contributor to the government’s finances. The ACP, by contrast, is a major and steadfast contributorto the government budget (see charts), with transfers of over 3 percent of GDP in recent years. 4.This paper aims to develop