The new face of El Salvador

El Salvador's mega projects are transforming the reality of the country, already generating concrete results such as increased foreign direct investment direct (FDI) and increased exports. In the first case, the FDI of El Salvador in the first quarter of 2021 exceeded 10,345 million dollars, a value higher than all the FDI in 2019, pre-pandemic, which was 10,113 million Dollars.

Regarding exports, between January and September 2021, the value reached 4,928 million dollars, a value 37.19% higher than that registered in the same period of the year 2020 (with pandemic) and 9.46% higher than January-September 2019 (year without pandemic). Another relevant piece of information about export data has to do with an unprecedented growth in external sales to its Central American partners (45% of the total), making El Salvador the main commercial partner of the region and demonstrating greater regional integration beneficial for everyone: + 39% with Guatemala, + 46% with Honduras, + 34% with Nicaragua and + 15% with Costa Rica, in comparison to the same period in 2020.

The type of product that has been increasing its sales is also surprising: plastics, machinery and equipment, metal products and chemicals and substances, sign that the increase in exports is accompanied by an increase in the added value of external sales.

While global technology companies report a shortage of electronic chips, in El Salvador the sales of this product have grown in the first quarter of 2021. The country exported 59.7 million dollars in chips or electrical capacitors, a number that exceeds by 21 million the 37.8 million dollars in sales achieved in the same 2020 period, according to data from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR).