Panama’s economy is strong. Their GDP ,the Gross Domestic Product, an estimate of total wealth of a nation). 2012′s annual growth 10.5% rate 7th place globally (for comparison, the US ranked 134th, Canada 143th, The UK 189th, and Germany 171th see the full list here from the CIA web site ).
The Panama Canal generated $1 billion in income for the 2012 fiscal year, according to the Canal Authority, ACP. The figure shows an 8.6 increase compared to the previous fiscal year.
The Panama Canal expansion, scheduled to open in late 2014, will nearly triple the Canal’s capacity, increasing the maximum vessel size from 4,400 TEUs to 12,600 TEUs (a TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, is about the size of one intermodal container). This means that larger, more cost-effective vessels will be able to call on East Coast ports, bypassing the transcontinental trip on western railroadswill more than double the current revenue of the Panama Canal Authority. [Read more...]
