Yearbook 2011
Panama. A strange political situation arose in September when President Ricardo Martinelli first dismissed his Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Varela and Varela declared at the end of the month that he intends to remain as Vice President but will henceforth act as opposition. The alliance between Martinelli’s Cambio Democrático (CD) and Varela’s Partido Panameñista (PP) was thus practically over. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of PAN that stands for the country of Panama.
Economy
Inflation rate | 0.90% |
Unemployment rate | 6% |
Gross domestic product (GDP) | 104,100,000,000 USD |
GDP growth rate | 5.40% |
GDP per capita | $ 25,400 |
GDP by sector | |
Agriculture | 2.40% |
Industry | 15.70% |
Service | 82.00% |
State budget | |
Revenue | 4.283 billion |
Expenditure | 4.195 billion |
Proportion of the population below the national poverty line | 26% |
Distribution of household income | |
Top 10% | 40.1 |
Lower 10% | 1.1 |
Industrial production growth rate | 4.80% |
Investment volume | 24.1% of GDP |
National debt | 37.80% of GDP |
Foreign exchange reserves | $ 3,888,000,000 |
Tourism | 2014 |
Number of visitors | 1,745,000 |
Revenue | $ 5,490,000,000 |
According to Countryaah official site, the government coalition had already been hit by a series of corruption scandals and falling confidence, among other things. as a result of a bill to amend the legislation so that foreign companies’ exploitation of Panama’s mineral resources would be allowed. Martinelli’s proposal for a replacement for Varela led to further layoffs of PP members in the government, including the successful Minister of Finance and Finance, Alberto Vallarino, who is considered to be behind economic growth of 7% in recent years.
The reason for President Martinelli’s decision to dismiss Varela was that the latter tried to use his position to obtain support from CD for his candidacy for the presidential office in the 2014 election. CD, in turn, replied that the party will launch its own candidate. Another reason was that Martinelli tried to push through a constitutional reform to allow a second round of elections in the presidential election, a proposal which Varela opposed.
On December 11, former dictator Manuel Noriega was brought back to Panama after more than 20 years in prison in France. He was deposed by a US campaign in 1989 and now faces another 60 years in Panama for crimes committed during his time as the country’s leader in the 1980s.
Relief. – The Isthmian region of Panamá in past geological epochs must have extended much more widely, and was reduced as it currently is by a submersion movement (calculated at about 200 m. Below the current zero) which sank much of it. The topography of the submarine bottom near the Panamanian coasts, and the irregular course and conformation of the coasts themselves, where there are, among other things, some rías testify to this submersion movement.(the largest is that of the Tuyra), submerged valleys with normal slopes, which open in the shape of a funnel. Much more irregular than that of the Atlantic is the Pacific coast, because in this ocean there are very strong oscillations of the tide (even more than 6 m; in Colón, on the Atlantic, m. 0.68) and therefore abrasion marina was able to act with greater vigor, contributing to the partial demolition of the isthmus.
Almost the whole territory is mountainous, since the lower parts have been invaded by the sea: small plains of recent origin are however found on the Pacific side (of David, of Santiago) and are among the most fertile and richest areas of the republic (sugar cane, coffee and cocoa crops). There are two main mountainous alignments: in western Panama rises the cordillera bearing the names of Chiriquí (with the extinct volcano of the same name, 3433 m high, and with Cerro Santiago, 2826 m high) and of Veragua (Cerro Horquete, 2600 m.: but most of the peaks remain between 1200 and 1400 m.), And which is a continuation of the Talamanca mountain range (Costa Rica); beyond the Culebra Pass, only 87 meters high and used by the interoceanic channel, rises the crystalline Sierra of S. Blas (900 m.), which is followed by the much higher and little known Serrania del Darien (more than 2200 m.). The relief of the Azuero peninsula, which closes at SW. the Gulf of Panamá, perhaps constitutes a third mountainous alignment; it is 980 m high. about and seems to be connected with the alignment formed by the reliefs of the peninsulas of Nicoya, Osa and Burica (v. costa rica) and the Colombian Cordillera del Chocó.
Volcanic activity has ceased throughout Panama, but the materials of the ancient eruptions cover vast stretches of the predominantly Cenozoic sedimentations (from which crystalline nuclei often protrude) that make up the region (the sediments of the lower Cenozoic, which underwent a folding in the Middle Cenozoic). The hot and humid climate favors the disintegration of the rocks and therefore erosion: therefore the shapes of the peaks are often sweet and rounded, that is, morphologically mature.