Paraguay ended 2025 with 16 banks, maintaining virtually the same number of institutions since 2013 and ranking among Latin America’s smallest banking markets, amid a regional decline from 551 to 524 banks over the period.
Colombia
Pytagua coverage mentioning Colombia.
ECLAC has lowered Paraguay's growth projection to 4.3% in 2026, keeping it among the highest in a region expected to grow 2.2% on average, despite warnings about vulnerabilities due to commodity dependence and structural problems.
Moody's warns that low revenue and an increasingly rigid budget, with rising mandatory spending, limit Paraguay's fiscal space and reduce its investment capacity, despite the country maintaining stable debt levels and one of the lowest public expenditures in the region.
Paraguay sends 50 tons of humanitarian aid to Colombia after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Chocó leaves 294 dead, 3,935 injured, 320 missing, and damages infrastructure, housing, and animals.
The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) will expand its infrastructure fund manager, CAF Asset Management Corp (CAF-AM), into Paraguay and Peru, following positive results in Uruguay and Colombia, with the aim of attracting private capital for strategic projects.
The World Bank has kept Paraguay in the upper-middle-income category, a position shared by the majority of South American countries, while Uruguay and Chile are classified as high-income and Bolivia as lower-middle-income.
Paraguay recorded deflation of 0.3% in June, reducing its annual inflation rate to 2.1%, the second lowest in the region, behind only Ecuador.
In 2026, Paraguay's apparent labor productivity was US$13,728 per person, placing it below eight Latin American countries, including Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, and surpassing only Bolivia.
Paraguay ended May with the third-lowest country risk in Latin America and the Caribbean, with an EMBI of 104 basis points, trailing only Uruguay (61 points) and Chile (86 points), according to data from Bloomberg Línea based on the index compiled by J.P. Morgan.
On the fourth anniversary of the murder of prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, his brother Francisco harshly criticized the lack of results from investigations in Paraguay, pointing to failures in the administrations of Sandra Quiñónez and Emiliano Rolón, and warned that the country risks becoming a 'narco-nation'.
On May 30, Palma Street in Asunción will host the second edition of the Palmear Sin Fronteras Fair, bringing together 16 immigrant communities with typical cuisine, artistic performances, and traditional dances in a day of multicultural integration.