Economy

Imports
$25.2 billion (2021). Refined Petroleum ($2.97B), Broadcasting Equipment ($704M), Cars ($618M), Packaged Medicaments ($574M), and Delivery Trucks ($555M), importing mostly from United States ($8.18B), China ($4.24B), Mexico ($2.35B), El Salvador ($1.16B), and Costa Rica ($727M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 43.5% have an account with a financial institution
• 6.6% have a credit card
• 2.1% have a mobile money account

Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is medium (rated 62.6 out of 100). Ranked 10th out of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Ranked 96th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).

Exports
$14.2 billion (2021).  The top exports of Guatemala are Bananas ($1.01B), Coffee ($956M), Palm Oil ($715M), Nutmeg, mace and cardamons ($615M), and Raw Sugar ($520M), exporting mostly to United States ($4.47B), El Salvador ($1.73B), Honduras ($1.37B), Nicaragua ($841M), and Mexico ($584M).

In 2021, Guatemala was the world’s biggest exporter of Nutmeg, mace and cardamons ($615M).

Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (rated 62.7 out of 100). Ranked 13th out of 32 Latin American countries. Ranked 64th out of 176 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 17th out of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, and 110th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language Spanish, English.

Information channels
Guatemala is one of the Western Hemisphere’s most dangerous countries for the media, says Reporters Without Borders. The watchdog says exposing corruption among politicians and officials can lead to threats and violence. Private operators dominate the media. Four national TV channels share the same owner and have a virtual monopoly in TV broadcasting. They have been criticised for being pro-government. Press ownership is also concentrated, says Freedom House.

The press

Prensa Libre – private daily
La Hora – private daily
elPeriodico – private daily
El Siglo – private, business daily

Television

Canal 3 – commercial
Teleonce (Canal 11) – commercial
Televisiete (Canal 7) Televisiete (Canal 7) – commercial
Trecevision (Canal 13) – commercial

Radio

Emisoras Unidas – commercial
Radio Cultural TGN – private, religious/cultural, in Spanish, English and indigenous languages
Radio Sonora – news and talk
Nuevo Mundo Radio – commercial

Internet Data

Internet users
60.4% penetration, 10.86 million

Share of web traffic by device
64.94% mobile phones, 33.76% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.27% tablet devices and 0.02% other devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
25.54  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
27.02 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 125.1%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 88.7%

Most popular web search engines
Google (97.05%), Bing (2.34%), Petal Search (0.22%), Yahoo! (0.19%), DuckduckGo (0.1%), other (0.1%).

Most used social media
Facebook (79.42%),  Instagram (8.74%), Pinterest (6.45%), YouTube (2.58%), Twitter (2.5%), Reddit (0.14%), Tumblr (0.11%), other (0.07%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
69 yrs (2021)

Corruption perceptions Index
Guatemala scored 24 out of 100, ranked 150 out of 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
6.47% of GDP

CO2 emissions
1 metric ton per capita

World Happiness Index
Guatemala ranked 39 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.262.

Current education expenditure
96.5% of total expenditure in public institutions.