Economy

Nicaragua has experienced sustained economic growth as a result of the disciplined management of its fiscal, financial, monetary and exchange policies.

Pro-business legislations and administrative procedures have contributed to a strong inflow of foreign investment in recent years.

Furthermore, Nicaragua’s excellent economic performance has been recognized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through a series of revisions over the past years. In the most recent revision held on March 2015, the IMF highlighted that "Nicaragua’s recent economic development has been favorable", also emphasized that "the prudent management of the macroeconomic policies will become into favorable short and middle term macroeconomic perspectives".

Gross Domestic Product

In 2014,  Nicaragua reached a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$11,805.6 million and a real growth of  4.7 percent. In turn, GDP per capita is  US$ 1,904.7.

GDP during the last five years has behaved as follows:  

The top sectors that composed the GDP of Nicaragua in 2014 were:

This higher growth was driven by economic and social stability in recent years and as a result of good government management during the 2010- 2014 period.

Exports

In 2014, Nicaragua’s total exports reached the record figure of US$5,143 million, which represented an increase of 8 percent when comparing to 2013. Furthermore, total exports has shown a 14 percent compound annual growth rate from 2005 to 2014.  

Source: Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN)

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows in Nicaragua reached US$1,446.8 million in 2014, which represents a 4 percent increase compared to 2013. Nicaragua’s FDI Inflows registered acompound annual growth rate of 22 percent between 2005 and 2014; an increase that supports the country’s secure and stable business climate and solid legal framework.

The top five sectors were industry (40%), telecommunications (13%), financial (11%), energy (10%) and mines (9%), which comprised 84 percentof total foreign direct investment inflows in 2014.

Nicaragua has reached more diversification of FDI Inflows source in the country, going from 22 countries in 2007 to 40 countries in 2014, which represent an 81 percent growth. Specifically in 2014, the top five sources of FDI Inflows were United States (20%), Panama (14%), Mexico (13%), Venezuela (13%) and Spain (6%), which together represented 66 percent of the total inflows of the country.

Exchange Rate

Over the last decade, the Central Bank of Nicaragua established a “crawling peg” exchange rate regime whereby the local currency (Córdoba) devaluates 5 percent annually versus the U.S. dollar. For 2016, the average exchange rate is C$28.62 Córdobas for every dollar. This successful system assures a high level of currency stability, while at the same time maintaining the country’s export competitiveness.