Guatemala

This paper studies the potential drivers of governments’ approval rates in 18 Latin American countries using Internet search query data from Google Trends and traditional data sources. It employs monthly panel data between January 2006 and December 2015. The analysis tests several specifications including traditional explanatory variables of governments’ approval rates – i.e. inflation, unemployment rate, GDP growth, output gap – and subjective explanatory variables – e.g. perception of corruption and insecurity. For the latter, it uses Internet search query data to proxy citizens’ main social concerns, which are expected to drive governments’ approval rates. The results show that the perception of corruption and insecurity, and complaints about public services have a statistically significant association with governments’ approval rates. This paper also discusses the potential of Internet search query data as a tool for policy makers to understand better citizens’ perceptions, since it provides highly anonymous and high-frequency series in real-time.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2020 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2019 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The 2021 edition is produced with the support of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean, which results from joint work led by the European Union, the OECD and its Development Centre, and ECLAC.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2018 for 26 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The 2020 edition is produced with the support of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean, which results from joint work led by the European Union, the OECD and its Development Centre, and ECLAC.

Digitalisation is transforming the world of work and societies, and creating opportunities to learn and develop skills in new ways, times and places. The adoption and use of digital technologies can help Latin American countries close the skills gap with more advanced economies. Making the Most of Technology for Learning and Training in Latin America demonstrates how Latin American countries can realise the potential of new technologies for skills development in schools and all stages of life. It identifies barriers to accessing ICT infrastructure and connectivity limitations in Latin America, and provides recommendations on how they can be overcome to ensure that all students and citizens can benefit from new technologies for learning. The report explores the relationship between technology use in initial education and students’ performance in Latin America, and how policies can best support teachers as digital tools enter their classrooms. Digitalisation provides new opportunities for lifelong learning and this report examines the potential of open education and MOOCs in reaching those adults who are most in need of training in Latin American countries.

Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020 presents key indicators on health and health systems in 33 Latin America and the Caribbean countries. This first Health at a Glance publication to cover the Latin America and the Caribbean region was prepared jointly by OECD and the World Bank. Analysis is based on the latest comparable data across almost 100 indicators including equity, health status, determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing, and quality of care. The editorial discusses the main challenges for the region brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as managing the outbreak as well as mobilising adequate resources and using them efficiently to ensure an effective response to the epidemic. An initial chapter summarises the comparative performance of countries before the crisis, followed by a special chapter about addressing wasteful health spending that is either ineffective or does not lead to improvement in health outcomes so that to direct saved resources where they are urgently needed.

This chapter presents Guatemala’s taxpayer education programme. It first gives an overview of the whole programme and its objectives, followed by a focus on one specific element, the Citizen Culture Festival “Strength Lies in Numbers”. It finally looks at the impacts and lessons learnt of the initiative.

This chapter provides a detailed assessment of the current state of data collection and availability, in terms of quality and completeness, at the level of the national education system in Guatemala. It shows that Guatemala is in a good position to respond to the system-level questionnaire: each data table in the questionnaire has an institution assigned to it to collect the requested information; and metadata are all based on well-known legislation (national law or administrative norms) while the data are regularly based on advanced information systems. Challenges include providing data on instruction time, on the duration of pre-primary education according to ISCED levels of education, and on educational expenditure.

Regarding investment and production transformation indicators, total investment in Guatemala increased from 13.9% of GDP in 2016 to 16.8% in 2022, following the average trend for the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, which increased from 20.8% to 21.3% over the same period. Private investment rose slightly in Guatemala, from 12.6% of GDP to 12.8%, but remains below the LAC average (15.8% in 2019). Guatemala’s labour productivity, measured against output per employed person in the United States, remained largely unchanged at 15.7% in 2016 and 15.8% in 2023, below the LAC average of 27.1% in 2023. The share of exports of high-tech products in total exported manufactured goods declined from 5.8% in 2016 to 5.2% in 2021, below the LAC average (7.2%). Positive perceptions of foreign direct investment (FDI), which declined across the LAC region, fell in Guatemala from 55.1% in 2016 to 45.5% in 2020. The country’s tax revenue increased from 13.2% of GDP in 2016 to 14.2% in 2021, remaining below the regional average of 21.5%. Environment-related tax revenues remained almost unchanged, declining from 0.9% of GDP in 2016 to 0.8% in 2021.

In 2019, total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita in Guatemala were 2.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2e), lower than the averages for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) (6.3) and countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (9.1). That same year, the share of the population exposed to air pollution levels that pose risks to human health (PM2.5 at more than 10 µg/m3) was 100%, higher than 95.4% for LAC and 61.0% for the OECD. The marine protected area of Guatemala accounted for 0.8% of its territorial waters in 2021, compared to 7.3% for LAC and 18.6% for the OECD. On the fiscal side, environmentally related tax revenue was 0.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, below the averages for LAC (1.0%) and the OECD (2.1%). Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP (12.4%) in 2020 remained lower than the averages for LAC (21.9%) and the OECD (33.5%).

The crisis hit Guatemala’s economy hard. In 2020, gross domestic product (GDP) contracted annually by 1.5%. The economic downturn has increased extreme poverty by more than three percentage points, reaching 18.7% in 2020, while the poverty rate remained relatively stable at 50.9%, based on latest international comparable estimations. Before the crisis, Guatemala’s public expenditures on health stood at 5.8% of GDP, almost unchanged over a decade, compared to the averages of 6.8% in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region and 8.8% in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In 2020, 56.0% of people in Guatemala declared being satisfied with health care, a proportion similar to LAC (48.2%) and much lower than the OECD (70.7%). The pandemic particularly affected education. Between March 2020 and May 2021, schools were fully closed for 33 weeks, compared to 26 weeks in LAC and 15 weeks in the OECD. Both children and families suffered a lot as a result, due to the disruption of education and the increased burden of childcare, especially considering that only 40.7% of the population had Internet access, in 2019.

Guatemala continues to progress in enhancing digital access and use for all. The share of Internet users increased from 8.3% in 2008 to 65.0% in 2018, which is above the current Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average (62.9%). Active mobile broadband subscriptions also increased but are below the LAC and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) averages. The country has made progress in enhancing trust in the digital ecosystem, as seen by improvement in perceived trust in online privacy and in the Global Cybersecurity Index. In particular, the Global Cybersecurity Index increased from 0.21 in 2016 to 0.25 in 2018, but remains below LAC (0.43) and OECD (0.79) averages.

Guatemala has made progress in some development indicators in the past decades. In particular, the maternal mortality ratio has decreased substantially, from 205 to 88 per 100 000 live births between 1990 and 2015. However, the rate remains higher than the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) average of 74.4. The infant mortality rate decreased from 60.1 to 23.1 per 1 000 live births between 1990-2015.

The country profile includes data on the income taxes paid by workers, their social security contributions, the family benefits they receive in the form of cash transfers as well as the social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by the employers. Results reported include the average and marginal tax burdens for eight different family types.It also describes the personal income tax systems, all compulsory social security contribution schemes and universal cash transfers as well as recent changes in the tax/benefit system.