Country Overview
Guatemala has satisfactory overall investment in infrastructure at 3.4% of GDP. However, financial closes for private infrastructure investment have declined in the five years to 2020. Guatemala could reform its infrastructure governance and planning to attract better quality investment. Setting out a strategic infrastructure plan for the nation, publishing a project pipeline and conducting post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects could contribute to an improved infrastructure investment environment.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
4,688 USD
Population
18.3 million persons
Infrastructure quality
55.9 (0-100 best)

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

71
1
26.7
Emerging
59
3
50.3
Aspiring
54
2
60.0
Aspiring
72
2
18.7
Emerging
41
9
73.9
Contender
18
5
46.7
Top performer
48
1
29.6
Contender
61
3
24.3
Aspiring

Metric Overview

Strengths

Financial stability

According to the World Economic Forum, Guatemala has good financial stability, above the average of 88 for Upper Middle Income Countries. The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is to be determined.

Gross government debt

Guatemala’s gross government debt grew to 25% of GDP in 2019 from 24% in 2016. This remains lower than the average of 47% for Upper Middle Income Countries but the fiscal impact of COVID-19 pandemic may affect this.

Registering property

It takes 24 days to register a property in Guatemala, similar to the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 23.5 days. As infrastructure projects often involve property rights, shorter time to register properties means less cost and lower to projects.

Financial stability

According to the World Economic Forum, Guatemala has good financial stability, above the average of 88 for Upper Middle Income Countries. The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is to be determined.

Gross government debt

Guatemala’s gross government debt grew to 25% of GDP in 2019 from 24% in 2016. This remains lower than the average of 47% for Upper Middle Income Countries but the fiscal impact of COVID-19 pandemic may affect this.

Registering property

It takes 24 days to register a property in Guatemala, similar to the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 23.5 days. As infrastructure projects often involve property rights, shorter time to register properties means less cost and lower to projects.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

Upper-middle income country average

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Funding capacity:
Gross government debt

Opportunities to Grow

Published project pipeline

Guatemala does not currently publish an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Published infrastructure plan

Guatemala does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Market sounding and/or assessment

According to the World Bank, there is no formal requirement for a market sounding process in Guatemala. Adding one could allow the government to determine if there is an interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Published project pipeline

Guatemala does not currently publish an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Published infrastructure plan

Guatemala does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Market sounding and/or assessment

According to the World Bank, there is no formal requirement for a market sounding process in Guatemala. Adding one could allow the government to determine if there is an interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

Upper-middle income country average

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Guatemala

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

28.1 (+0.2)
37.7

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

29.0 (-0.6)
45.1

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

No
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

16.7
40.2

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

41.0
46.1

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Guatemala

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

28.1 (+0.2)
37.7
29.0 (-0.6)
45.1
No
-
16.7
40.2
41.0
46.1
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Guatemala has satisfactory overall investment in infrastructure at 3.4% of GDP. However, financial closes for private infrastructure investment have declined in the five years to 2020. Guatemala could reform its infrastructure governance and planning to attract better quality investment. Setting out a strategic infrastructure plan for the nation, publishing a project pipeline and conducting post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects could contribute to an improved infrastructure investment environment.
GDP per capita

4,688 USD

Population

18.3 million persons

Infrastructure quality

55.9 (0-100 best)

GDP

81.3 USD billion

GDP growth rate

3.4%

GDP per capita growth rate

1.6%

Gini coefficient

48.3 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

25.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

4.2%

Summary credit rating

45.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

2.7%

Urbanisation ratio

51.0% of total population

Road connectivity

38.0 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

2.4 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

4.1 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

3.9 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

92.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

12.1% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

43.0% of population

Reliability of water supply

4.4 (1-7 best)

Digital Adoption Index

0.5 (0-1 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

16.5 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

3.1 per 100 population