COVID-19: Panama to Receive USD 350 Million from CAF for Countercyclical Policies

Protecting the social fabric, jobs, and reviving the economy require a prompt and timely response by authorities. As an unconditional ally of its member countries, CAF—development bank of Latin America—approved a long-term loan under the Regional Contingent Credit Line for Anti-cyclical Support for the Emergency caused by COVID-19 in Panama for up to USD 350 million.

“We have an effective aid plan made up of various initiatives that has provided a timely response to the needs based on the context of our shareholders. In Panama, we are supporting immediate health care with non-reimbursable technical cooperation funds and a contingency credit line; and now we are assisting and complementing the fiscal measures that the National Government is implementing to mitigate economic, financial and social impacts,” said CAF executive president Luis Carranza Ugarte.

This line of credit is in addition to the USD 400,000 grant to support the National Health Care System Operational Plan for the prevention and control of COVID-19; and another contingent credit line for USD 50 million to improve responsiveness of the nation’s health care system through direct financial resources and reimbursement of expenditures and investments for projects, the purchase and distribution of equipment and/or services and purchase of supplies, among others.

In addition, CAF has offered online training mechanisms to countries and is focused on knowledge generation, as key elements to help countries design their economic recovery strategies while ensuring continuity of the social programs developed in recent decades. CAF’s human talent, together with experts in strategic sectors such as healthcare, education, economy, transport, social protection, technology and governance, are working on proposals for public policies that can be tailored to each country, which are available here.