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    Top Destinations:

    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

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    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
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  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

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    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
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Home Countries Panama

Why Panama’s Economy Continues To Boom

How Badly Has COVID-19 Hit Panama?

by Lief Simon
Feb 23, 2021
in Panama
0 0
Panama City. Panama.

Alamy/hanohikirf

I’m back in Panama after having been away for a year.

Kathleen and I arrived in the country about a month ago and headed straight out to the Veraguas coast.

We remained in residence at Los Islotes until last week. After months of lockdown in our Paris apartment, we sure did appreciate the chance to spread out in that wide-open space… and access to our own private beach.

We drove from Los Islotes to Panama City last Monday for a week of meetings and to host last week’s Live and Invest in Belize Virtual Conference.

On one hand, now that we’ve had a chance to settle in, I’m reminded of when we first began spending time in this country some two decades ago.

The streets of Panama City are blissfully traffic-free. Gone are the soul-sucking traffic jams Kathleen and I faced as part of our daily commute when we lived here full time.

Kathleen ran out at lunch time almost every day last week to run errands… an adventure, she admitted, that she never would have braved a year ago.

An upside of pandemic quarantines and the new WFH normal.

On the other hand, driving from Los Islotes to the city, we were surprised and pleased to see that this country continues to do what it does best—build and expand.

Traveling the Pan-American Highway from Santiago through Penonomé to the City Beaches and then, finally, Panama City, we noted a great deal of new construction. New banks, new shopping malls, new gas stations, new roadside restaurants, and other commercial spaces are going up in the many still fast-growing interior cities and towns.

Penonomé, in particular, is exploding. I believe this interior city, capital of the province of Coclé, is going to become a new engine for this country, alongside the Panama Canal. More on this in a minute.

At the same time, major infrastructure projects are underway.

Why Panama Is Unique In The Region

In my long experience in this part of the world, this is the only country in Central America that actually follows through on its infrastructure promises. When Panama says it’s going to build a bridge or a road… you can count on it.

Los Islotes is among the big beneficiaries of current big infrastructure undertakings. The road down the Veraguas coast is being expanded, rebuilt, and repaved. When the work is finished, the travel time from Santiago to our Los Islotes gate will be much shorter and smoother.

Back in Panama City, a new major highway is being constructed to connect to the new bridge over the Panama Canal.

All that is not to suggest that the country hasn’t suffered as a result of the quarantines and shutdowns of the past year. Like everywhere, Panama’s economy has taken a hit.

This means reduced tax revenues flowing through government coffers. However, in Panama, that’s not the big deal it can be elsewhere (like across the border in Costa Rica, for example).

Why Panama’s Economy Stays Strong

Panama’s economy doesn’t rely on tax income. This is a tax haven, after all.

No, for the past two decades or so, it’s been Canal revenues that have kept this country moving and shaking.

Now Panama has two cash cows. The Canal continues to do its thing (and has not missed a day’s income over the past year).

In addition, the recently inaugurated copper mine in the middle of the country is fully operational… and, within the next few years, will be contributing Canal-level revenues to Panama’s coffers.

A developer friend took me on a helicopter fly-over a couple of weeks ago so I could see the scale of the operation. It is big indeed… and it’s still just getting started.

The mine is expected to produce for as many as 35 years… and another section of mountain in the continental divide has been identified that could hold more ore than the current operation.

Panama’s economy slipped but recovered quickly post the global recession of 2008/2009 and will recover quickly again once the pandemic is under control.

I’m more bullish than ever on the country’s prospects both short and long term.

Lief Simon
Editor, Offshore Living Letter

Tags: 'Los Islotes''panama city''Taxes'city beachesCocléEconomy in PanamaInfrastructure in PanamaPanama's copper minepanamas economyPenonometax haventaxes in panamaThe Panama Canal
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Lief Simon

Lief Simon

Lief Simon has lived and worked in 7 countries on 5 continents and traveled to more than 75 countries. His real estate investment career began with a $5,000 down payment on a three-flat building in Chicago. Less than three years later, Lief sold the building for a leveraged return of 3,000%—$150,000 in profit after closing costs and commissions.

From there, he turned his attention overseas and has bought property in 24 countries including France, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, Belize, Spain, Argentina, Cyprus, Romania, and beyond. Thanks to his decades-long career as a global property investor, Lief has built a multi-million-dollar portfolio that includes rental properties, significant land holdings, and 7 personal residences.

Lief has established residency in 3 countries and acquired a second passport from Ireland.

In 2008 Lief and wife Kathleen Peddicord made the most important investment of their lives—a 215-acre oceanside finca, known as Los Islotes. There, on Panama’s largely undiscovered Veraguas coast, they’ve installed underground electricity, water, and internet and built a forever family home that sits at the heart of their ultimate vision: a gold standard private residential community for those in search of a true safe haven escape.

Lief’s latest book, “Cowboy Millionaire—The New American Pioneer,” collects all the wisdom he has learned in three decades of living and investing outside America.

He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches. For real estate investment opportunities, check out his monthly Global Property Advisor service.

If you’d like to meet Lief in person, join him for one of our upcoming in-country conferences. You’ll find further details here.

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BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

Budgets

How Much Will It Cost
To Live Overseas?

Super Cheap

  • Chitré, Panama
  • Santa Marta, Colombia
  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

Cheap

  • Medellin, Colombia
  • Boquete, Panama
  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
  • The Algarve, Portugal

Affordable

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Cascais, Portugal
  • Las Terrenas, The DR
  • Pisa, Italy
  • La Rochelle, France
  • Mazatlán, Mexico

Luxury

  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • The Panama City Beaches
  • Paris, France

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